Neil Harpe
"The Blues"
A Series of Portraits of Blues Music Legends
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 a 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 filled with skipjacks and fishing boats. Watermen came daily to unload their catches at the City Dock. It was a way of life that he took for granted would always exist. After growing up and moving farther away from the water, Neil visited Annapolis periodically only to find the rapid changes that had taken place throughout the Bay area. Sleek yachts began to take over the creeks where workboats once proliferated and tourists, not watermen, filled the docks. Influenced by his memories of a way now vanishing, Neil has been drawn to portray the poetic beauty of the maritime world: graceful skipjacks; aging fishing boats; the Bay's unique lighthouses; fishing ports like Tilghman, Deal Island, Crisfield and Annapolis; and the flat, grassy marshlands along the shore.
The unique quality of Neil's original etchings and lithographs results not only from his perspective as a native son, but also from his approach. A meticulous printmaker, his graphics are colored with fresh delicate watercolor washes, a l9th century technique seldom seen today.
Also an accomplished watercolorist, Neil has been capturing images that are quintessential Annapolis, the Old Severn River Bridge, the State House, the Naval Academy Chapel and the City Dock. Earning his BFA from Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore, Neil received his MFA in stone and plate lithography at George Washington University. He is an artist member of the American Society of Marine Artists; his work is in fine galleries and many corporate and private collections.
McBride Gallery is pleased to represent the work of this multi-talented Maryland artist, Neil Harpe.