“Wildflowers and Fog”
14 x 18 in.
Oil

This painting was done from a plein air study I did in August of 2016 on a trip to Patrick’s Point north of Trinidad, CA. The misty mood and colors, so different from the intensely sunlit landscape of my home in the desert, were captivating. The fog, constantly moving in and off the coastline, proved to be quite a challenge. My goal was to accurately portray the bright light filtering through the fog while keeping the colors cool. As an artist, I feel that my job is to try and make the viewer feel the same little piece of drama that moved me to paint that particular scene. I want it to be about evoking an emotion or a memory as a new experience.

Nita Harper is an award winning artist living in the desert of Southern California. The granddaughter of a professional artist who showed his work with painters like Edgar Payne, Victor Higgins and Walter Ufer, she was inspired at an early age, and has been painting most of her life. Moves from Illinois to Florida, Texas, and eventually California, exposed her to the country’s vast and varied landscape.

Nita studied art with an emphasis in painting at Stephens College, the University of Arizona, and the Glassell School of Art, MFA, Houston. She is particularly drawn to the vast, unspoiled lands of the American Southwest. Living in the desert gives her the opportunity to paint her favorite landscape during the winter months and work larger in the studio in the summer. She is a member of the PAC6, a group of six women artists who have committed themselves to painting adventures that follow in the footsteps of the early male painters who travelled the west over a century ago. A painting trip on horseback into the Eastern Sierras was the trip of a lifetime.

View more of Nita’s work at www.nitaharper.com
Contact Nita at [email protected]

Art Education
Stephens College: Studio Art with an emphasis in oil painting,
University of Arizona: Fine Art
Glassell School of Art, MFA, Houston

Plein Air Events (past two years)
Telluride Plein Air Festival 2017
Idyllwild Plein Air Festival 2017
Plein Air Santa Fe, 2015

Recent Exhibitions (a sampling from 2016 and 2017)
Women Artists of the West 47th National Exhibition
McBride Gallery, Annapolis, MD
Nov. 2 – December 31, 2017

Santa Paula Art Museum PAC6 “Between Heaven and Earth”
March 4 – July 9, 2017

American Impressionist Society National Juried Exhibition
March 2017
Winner, Randy Higbee Award of Merit

Salmagundians and Friends Exhibition
The Wieghorst Museum and Western Heritage Center
January-February, 2017

Featured Artist Solo Exhibition
Purple Sage Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
June 2016

LPAPA (Laguna Plein Air Painters)
Urban Landscapes Exhibition
Winner-First Place
May-June 2016

Representation
Hillside Fine Art Gallery, Claremont, CA


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