Curriculum Vitae
MARY HARPER

ART STATEMENT

My paintings are water landscapes of Venezuela and Scotland.

Venezuela interests me because of the brightly painted metal houses built on water called Palafitos. It is these houses on lake Maracaibo that are the subject matter for my Venezuelan paintings. They exist in an eerie almost surreal landscape and I paint them without their inhabitants to emphasize the beautiful yet eerie nature of the landscape, allowing the viewer to wonder about habitation, desolation and abandonment.

I paint Scotland because I love the contrast of mountains and water and the varied landscape of the islands. The Isle of Harris has diverse and rare habitat that makes for an interesting mix of wild mountain and white sand and has constantly changing light that colours the atmosphere of a composition.

When painting water I try to convey contrasting water within each composition- shallow calm water alongside deep uneasy currents. I often work by squeezing paint directly onto the canvas, working with lots of water to let the paint run, creating fluidity and a feeling of movement that captures the constant changes in light and reflection within a landscape. I work with acrylic paint on canvas.


EDUCATION

I studied Art and Design at Central St Martins College, followed by Theatre Design(BA hons) at Wimbledon School of Art in the early 90s. After this I gained a postgraduate diploma in Social Work at Glasgow University. I then combined skills, running art and photography groups for socially isolated and homeless young people. In 2007 I decide to focus on my painting full time and have been splashing the paint around in my studio in the west end of Glasgow.