James Harter

Participating Artists
Photos
Hardworking Volunteers
Sponsors
Restaurants
Press
Grand Chair Home

back to
The "Grand Chairs" & Their Artists

James Harter has had a life long passion for the visual arts. But it has only been recently, in the past few years, that he has begun to exhibit his paintings of California landscapes, urban scenes, and interiors. Executed in an impressionistic style with thick impasto oil paint, his paintings capture the essence and unique lighting of California scenes.

James is a graduate of UCLA, earning his bachelors degree in History. After spending several years in the business world, including owning a giftware manufacturing company, the allure of the artworld was overwhelming. On a whim in 1995 he answered a classified ad and began working as a printmaker/color seperator in the then thriving limited edition serigraph business. This experience was invaluable in understanding color and how paintings are woven together. It was also in this business, that he worked with such renowned artists such as Richard Macdonald, Eyvind Earle, Ken Auster, John Nieto, John Asaro, and Don Hatfield. Ultimately this exposure to Fine art inspired James to try his own hand at painting, and in 1997 he started painting with every moment of free time that he had. In 2001, James took the plunge and started working at painting for a full time career.

From San Diego to San Francisco, from the coast to the desert-this is the studio that James prefers to work in. The variety of subject matter and the ways in which to depict it are endless. Year round you can find James somewhere in California displaying his most recently executed impressionistic paintings.