Summer Stroll, Impressionist Gregory Harris, 1989

Gregory Frank Harris (Greg Harris) was born in southern California in 1953. His mother was a painter and his father a miner. He also has a twin brother, an entomologist and drummer. In 1972, he attended Long Beach University studying art and theater. He also, at this time, began watercolor painting and song writing.  In 1977 while on the road in Spokane, Washington, inspired by a book on French impressionism, he began to paint in acrylic and oils, copying and studying the impressionists and old masters.

In 1980, through a twist a fate, three of his old master copies ended up in the movie “Annie”. From 1982 to 1996, a personal agent sold his original impressionist oils, pastels, and watercolors to galleries across the US. During those years he was exhibiting at juried shows and winning awards, all the while plein air painting in the Laguna and Irvine Canyons. In the fall of 1985, he studied at the Art Student’s League in New York.
From 1991 to 1996 he and his wife, now divorced, lived in Duxbury, Massachusetts. While in Duxbury he performed in community theater plays and musical productions. In 1996, after doing a workshop at the Fechin Institute, New Mexico, he decided to move to Santa Fe. He lived there for five years and continued his studies of contemporary realism and plein-air painting.

In November 2000 he moved to Lyme, CT to further paint from life. He also became a part-time teacher and elected member of the Lyme Art Association as well as a private instructor. Currently he is a member of the Putney painters group in Vermont with Richard Schmid.