Neil Harpe, Annapolis Artist, Printmaker

The Art of Neil Harpe

Ellsworth - Watercolor

Neil Harpe printmaker

blues subjects

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Neil Harpe was born in Annapolis, Maryland, where he grew up along the creeks and backwater marshes of the Chesapeake Bay, the region where his family has lived for generations. Swimming, crabbing, fishing and watching watermen at their daily activities were part of his childhood and fostered an early love of nature and the sea.

The Annapolis of Neil’s youth was a working port town. The harbor was filled with fishing boats: skipjacks, draketails, bugeyes...all manner of Chesapeake Bay workboats. Watermen came to Annapolis daily to unload their catches at City Dock. It was a way of life that he took for granted would always exist. But many changes have occurred since then. Sleek yachts have replaced most of the workboats that once proliferated. Nowadays, mostly tourists, not watermen fill the docks.

Influenced by his memories of a way of life that seems to be rapidly vanishing, Harpe has been drawn to portray the poetic beauty of the maritime world: graceful skipjacks; aging fishing boats; majestic lighthouses; and the flat, grassy marshlands that line the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.

The unique quality of Harpe’s Chesapeake Bay art results not only from his perspective as a native son, but also his approach. His watercolor paintings lack the “splashy” quality most often associated with the medium. Harpe’s meticulously rendered watercolors are extremely detailed…almost “photographic”. Aside from being an accomplished watercolorist, Neil’s primary discipline is printmaking. His etchings and lithographs are printed by the artist and hand colored with watercolor washes. After completing the 4-year diploma program at the Corcoran Gallery College of Art, Harpe went on to earn a BFA in mixed media at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He received his MFA in stone and plate lithography at George Washington University. Neil Harpe’s work can be seen in numerous art galleries as well as both private and corporate collections.