Art in the Park

Wednesday
Last week I had an eye exam and ordered new glasses - regular ones and prescription sunglasses. They said they'd be ready in about a week, which would have been Thursday, but I received a phone call yesterday afternoon to say they were both in already, so this morning I drove over to Sears Optical at Tri-county to pick them up. It was another beautiful sunny day, and I was about two thirds of the way to Winton Woods, another of the Hamilton County Parks, so I decided to go there for my daily exercise, as a change to my usual closer haunts. My collage shows some of the decoration along the "harbour"  wall, and on a flag pole, based on Charley Harper's artwork.
Charley Harper was born in 1922 in Frenchton, West Virginia, into a farming family. His upbringing on the farm and in the country was to influence his work for the rest of his life. He didn't have much interest in the farming life however, and left his farm home to study art at the Art Acadamy here in Cincinnati. On his first day at the Academy, he met fellow artist! Edie McKee, whom he would marry shortly after graduation, and the two of them would remain in Cincinnati the rest of their lives. During his career, Charley Harper illustrated numerous books, notably The Golden Book of Biology, magazines such as Ford Times, as well as many prints, posters, and other works. As his subjects were mainly natural, with birds prominently featured, Charley often created works for many nature-based organizations, among them the National Park Service, Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Nature Center, Hamilton County Parks and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania. He also designed interpretive displays for Everglades National Park.
In a style he called "minimal realism", Charley Harper captured the essence of his subjects, reducing their characteristics to the essential. When asked to describe his unique visual style, Charley responded:
"When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."
He died in 2007, at the age of 84.
His style may not be to everyone's taste, but I love his work and have a couple of his prints at home - you can see one here. His work is very popular around Cincinnati, and you can get notecards, mugs, trays, Christmas ornaments, calendars and all sorts featuring his work. If you want to see more of his work or would like to see more about him, you can find out more and see a couple of short videos here
One year ago: Tree house!