Phi Polychroma – An Art Exhibition by Owen Hart

The Phi Polychroma Art Exhibition is the culmination of eight years of painting by Pembrokeshire-based artist Owen Hart. Wilfully ambiguous, his paintings take on lives of their own, the myriad forms and earthly colours of greens, oranges, blues, yellows and evoking themes of nature, geometry and dreaming, all come together to create wonderful pieces of art.

Employing a full chromatic spectrum, Owen’s paintings seek harmony in contrast and balance between opposites whether between complimentary colours, curves and straight lines or light and dark tones, with the earthly colours stemming from the natural beauty and environment of the county. 

“I’ve been building towards this exhibition for many years, maintaining a painting practice alongside full-time teaching. This will be my first time exhibiting my work at the Torch and having eight years’ worth of paintings in one room will be a real treat. This will be my first solo show in Pembrokeshire so I’m excited to be exhibiting my work at Torch,” said teacher and father of two, Owen from Haverfordwest.

In his working life, Owen is a big fan of community engagement and promotes the importance of CARE – Community, Arts, Research and Education. In 2018 Owen cofounded community pop-up initiative, Fair Play Board Game Cafe, where people are encouraged to take part in wholesome screen-free playtime.

Owen has a passion for self-discovery through creativity and exploring new ways of teaching and learning in the 21st century. He’s an advocate for prioritising each individual’s innate gifts, helping them to find their strengths and a sense of purpose and meaning, moving away from the emphasis on standardisation, especially in the education sector.  

“People ought to pursue their passions for wellbeing and fulfilment in life. I am endlessly fascinated by the world of ideas and our growing understanding of the mysterious and complex languages and patterns found in nature. I hope to inspire curiosity in others with a mix of forms, colours and concepts in my paintings.” said Owen, who since moving to Pembrokeshire, has seen his love for painting reignited, exploring colour and abstraction. 

Driven by enthusiasm to reach out to children of all ages, he has a passion for cross-curricular learning and playfully exploring ideas through the process of art making, enabling high quality educational experiences for young people and fostering a greater sense of self-esteem, imaginative vision and creative well-being. 

In his paintings, Owen often uses grids, geometry and numbers in structuring a creative playground, breaking down the process into manageable steps; the joy of mixing and applying vibrant colours, square by square, along spiral pathways made with the Fibonacci sequence.

Owen describes this magical series as: “A remarkable sequence of numbers made simply by recursively adding each term to the previous term to generate the next term. When expanded out dimensionally, this sequence of numbers gives rise to infinitely nested squares and rectangles locked in a ‘golden’ ratio known as phi, an irrational number that emerges out of the Fibonacci sequence in the spiral paths that can be seen throughout nature, in the growth patterns of sunflowers, pinecones and shells to name a few examples.”

The Phi Polychroma Art Exhibition by Owen Hart opens at the Joanna Field Gallery at the Torch Theatre on Wednesday 5 February until Friday 28 February. The exhibition can be viewed during Box Office opening hours.

For further information visit www.owenhart.co.uk / www.torchtheatre.co.uk or phone the Box Office on 01646 695267 and the friendly staff will be happy to help.