The artwork on this jigsaw is called “Wings of the World” and is by American Wildlife artist Charley Harper.
I bought this jigsaw from a charity shop, and my young cousins and I put it together in July. It caught my eye because I like Charley Harper’s style of painting.
I discovered his work serendipitously, at my University's library, where a new book caught my eye: Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life by Todd Oldham.
I liked the simplicity of his style, his colour and his compositions. His work seems to be notable for the simple, geometric style that he employed when painting wildlife, especially bird life.
About Charley Harper
Charley Harper was an American Modernist painter, who was born in the town of Frenchton, West Virginia, in 1922.1 The family moved to the country, where his Father began farming. According to Harper, himself, he discovered an interest for wildlife while “roaming over the Appalachian foothills” which was a useful way of avoiding the farm chores!2
He studied art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where he met his future wife, and later, he taught art there too.3 After a few years at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Harper was caught up in the Second World War.
Harper thinks of that time, when he travelled through Germany, as a “fruitful training period” that taught him “to grasp the important elements of a scene quickly and put them down with a minimum of detail.” Although, he says, “[he] was constantly assailed by the senseless and overwhelming horror of war", he says he was also “fascinated by the scenes of devastation [that he and his platoon] encountered constantly in Germany”; he seems to have benefited much, artistically, from his experience as he “found time to make a large portfolio of sketches and paintings”.4
It seems to me that this experience is similar in some way to Mervyn Peakes’ wartime experience (another artist whom I admire), and of course many other artists of that generation who survived the Second World War. All of whom were shaped in some way by what they experienced. Both Charley Harper and Mervyn Peake have a wonderful economy of line and confidence in their mark-making abilities to convey much through a few lines on the page, which may have developed because of their experiences. (Although Harper does also say that the army, and wartime, is no substitute for art school!)5
After the war, Harper spent a short time in New York, but found that for a “country boy” New York was “no place” for him. So after four months, “he fled back to the serenity of the hills”. He returned to the Cincinnati Art Academy, and graduated in 1947.6
His style evolved from realism while he was working for a commercial art studio because he soon discovered that his art was “too realistic” for commercial adverts: no one wanted artwork with wrinkles and crows feet. So working by night, he developed a unique and personal style by thinking orthographically, and seeing subjects as flat, geometric lines and shapes, which in Harper’s own words “often led to fresh viewpoints and invariably revealed the particular projection that read fastest and made the best design.”7
I like Charley Harper’s art for this. The way he reduces subjects to simple geometric shapes and flat colours, while still maintaining the essential features that represent the animal or bird: his work seems to be realistic, minimal and orthographic all at the same time.
“Charles Harper’s wildlife art is created without the fuss and feathers. Minimal realism, he calls it, ‘I don’t try to put everything in, I try to leave everything out’. He explains, adding impishly, ‘I never count the feathers in the wings; I just count the wings.’ ”8
I also like the way that Harper draws the human figure, particularly his illustrations for Tin Lizzie and Betty Crocker’s Diner for two.9 The figures seem to be fluid and dynamic, and he only represents the essential details and movement.
Charles Burton Harper passed away on Sunday 10th June 2007.10
It seems to me that he was a great artist and an admirable and likeable person; his character sounds to me like someone to whom I could aspire towards.
References
1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 Harper, C. “Charley’s Story”. Online. Charley Harper Gallery: copyright 2012. Available at: www.charleyharperprints.com.
3, 8, 10 Frame House Gallery excerpt, 1977. “about-charley-harper”. Online. posted at: Charley Harper Gallery: copyright 2012. Available at: www.charleyharperprints.com.
9 “tin-lizzie-dinner-for-two” Online. Charley Harper Gallery: copyright 2012. Available at: www.charleyharperprints.com. Online. Charley Harper Gallery: copyright 2012. Available at: www.charleyharperprints.com.