Trained primarily in painting, drawing, and printmaking, Harry has consistently used his local landscape as the subject of his work. Since his move to Champaign-Urbana in 1957, the fertile fields and big skies of the central prairies of Illinois have been dominant themes. In 1971, the Shawnee Hills of far-southern Illinois where Breen and his wife, Diane, purchased acreage were added to Breen’s landscape subjects.

Museum installation of a collection of Breen sculpture at “Harry Breen XXV: A Retrospective” at the Lakeview Center for Art and Science, Peoria, Illinois.

In addition to the paintings inspired by the landscapes of central and southern Illinois, this artist is also known for his ceramic sculpture. Breen’s interest in ceramics developed as a result of his collecting antiques and modern pottery. In 1961 in order to further understand and appreciate the potter’s art, he began to work with clay. Studying informally with professional potters who were his friends in the art department at the University of Illinois, he learned the basic techniques required for making the ceramic animal sculpture for which he has become known. His first successful creature was a rhinoceros (the first of ten rhinos) which he made as a gift for his wife. Friends admired it and encouraged him to create other animal figures. Over the years, wild and domestic animals exotic and ordinary became subjects for a large menagerie of ceramic animal sculptures.

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