Get to Know Claire Jo Harmer, Contemporary Landscape Painter
"Look at the sky!" is a phrase you'll here me call out whenever I see the colours and clouds are putting on a show. It's an impulse that I cannot keep quiet, that eagerness to gaze up in wonder and to beg everyone around me to notice the sky too.
I grew up near London, this close distance and my Nanna’s eagerness to share her love of art and theatre meant I could experience an abundance of exhibitions and shows growing up. Expression through the arts was a wonderful normality at home.
Music, dance and for me, painting and drawing. The first exhibition that resonated beyond intrigue and admiration was Bonnard. Tate Britain 1998. That colour palette! I was blown away by the size of the works and the kaleidoscope of colours captured in these domestic scenes, and oh that turquoise!
It was my mum’s dad who was the painter of the family. I never knew him yet his paintings hung on the walls of family homes making their quiet impression on me.
In 2006, after University and qualifying as a Secondary Art Teacher, I left the UK for New Zealand where I worked and travelled from the spring to the winter. The combination of breathtaking scenery, freedom from my own inhibitions and the welcoming community of Tokoroa led me to a studio space where I began painting landscapes in oils.
I now paint and share my excitement of art and those breathtaking skies with the quiet hope that my children will grow up to notice and shout “look at the sky!” too.
After 20 years of teaching I founded Cabbage Tree Studio CIC and love to support others on their own art journey as I pursue mine!
Now living in beautiful South Devon and enjoying family adventures in the camper van with our two gorgeous doodle dogs, there’s no end of inspiration (and muddy paws)!