Angela Harding

• Born — 1960 6 • Birthplace — Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England • Education — Leicester Polytechnic • Alma Mater — Nottingham Polytechnic • Occupation — * Printmaker • Illustrator • Website — angelaharding.co.uk

Angela Harding was born in June 1960, in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. the middle of three daughters to Stephen and Joan Harding. Her father was a headteacher and her mother taught pottery. All three sisters went to art college. She was educated at the Roman Catholic girls' school St Dominic's Grammar School in Stoke. Harding studied Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic, where she achieved a first class degree. She then took a master's degree in Fine Art at Nottingham Polytechnic.

• Illustration — Harding makes sketches in the field, often by the sea such as in Fair Isle. After leaving university, Harding rode a bicycle around Britain and travelled on a Magic Bus from London to Athens, a trip funded by the sale of work from her graduation show. She then spent 20 years working in the art world, including teaching and consultancy. She works from her home as a wildlife printmaker and illustrator. She makes sketches in the field, developing these into print designs in her studio. Her work frequently combines drawings of places in Britain that she has visited with motifs of birds or animals. She states that she feels connected to the sea, whether sailing in East Anglia, walking the coast in Cornwall, or cycling in Shetland, especially Fair Isle. Harding has made prints from 1982 onwards in a variety of media including etching and drypoint. More recently she has moved mainly to linocut or vinyl cut and silkscreen printing.

Harding's books include the 2021 A Year Unfolding: A Printmaker’s View; the 2022 Wild Light; and the 2024 Still Waters & Wild Waves, for Little, Brown Book Group, which she worked on during a residency on Fair Isle. In 2025, she published a series of four seasonal books, which include prints previously published elsewhere: Spring Unfurled, Summer's Hum, Falling Into Autumn and Winter's Song. She has illustrated other authors' books, including a 2024 version of the conservationist Isabella Tree's Wilding and the poet laureate Simon Armitage's 2024 Blossomise. Harding has made book cover illustrations for many books, including Raynor Winn's 2018 nature memoir The Salt Path and the shepherd James Rebanks' 2020 English Pastoral. Her prints include Blossomise and Fair Isle Curlews and the South Lighthouse. Her work has appeared on bags, calendars, homeware, jigsaw puzzles, and notebooks.

Harding has two children by her first husband. After their divorce she married her second husband, Mark. She lives in Wing, a village in Rutland.