H A R P E R is a Queenstown-based contemporary artist whose practice is deeply connected to the landscape surrounding her home in Jacks Point.

Living beneath the Remarkables and close to the shores of Lake Wakatipu, H A R P E R is continually drawn to the shifting relationship between land, water and sky. Rather than seeking to recreate the landscape literally, her paintings explore the feeling of being within it: the stillness, changing light, sense of space and moments of quiet that can so easily pass unnoticed.

“My eyes are drawn towards the edge … that quiet, still meeting point of land and water, earth and sky.”

This connection sits at the heart of her ongoing Waters Edge Series. Through layered colour, considered composition and a pared-back approach to the landscape, H A R P E R explores ideas of perspective, connection, balance and lightness. There is a sense of calm within the works, but also movement, reflecting the constantly changing environment from which they originate.

“It’s from this beautiful silent space and a feeling of finding balance that I paint.”

H A R P E R’S creative practice is also informed by a longstanding relationship with art and education.
After studying Education and Classical Art and Architecture at the University of Otago, she spent more than 25 years working in education, where creativity remained an important part of her practice. Her eventual return to Queenstown marked a new chapter, allowing her connection to the landscape and her own artistic practice to come increasingly to the foreground.

For H A R P E R, painting is ultimately a way of slowing down and responding to place. Her works invite the viewer into that same space, offering a moment to pause, look beyond the immediate landscape and find something quieter within it.