| Ray
Harm
Ray Harm is the co-founder of the modern limited edition print
industry in America and has been a nationally known wildlife
artist over 30 years. This has been documented by the Filson
Historical Society' quarterly journal 4/98 Vol.72 No.2.
His parents were both concert violinists in the 1920's so music has been a significant
influence in his life and he learned several instruments from an early age. Born
in the mid twenties in West Virginia (also his father's native state) Ray's childhood
was imbued with his fathers later work and study as an herbalist and naturalist
digging and selling herbs on the pharmaceutical market. The stock market crash
in '29 had forced his father off of the concert tour and back to West Virginia
to an earlier interest in herbal medicine. The young man was strongly tutored
in the ways of nature by his woodsman/naturalist father.
In his mid teens he went west to work as a cowboy on cattle ranches, rode the
rodeo circuit in the bull and bronc riding events and when he won enough to purchase
a roping horse and trailer, competed as a calf roper. He even satisfied a dream
that many youngsters have by working with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and
Baily circus, then a tent show, training horses. Always he sought the outdoor
life and work with animals.
Three years of Navy service made him eligible for the GI Bill of World War II
and later, after more cowboying on the ranches, he chose Art School in 1948.
As he puts it "at least some kinda schooling would make my mom proud." Proud
indeed, with only six grades of public school, today he holds Honorary Doctorate
degrees from six colleges and Universities where he lectures regularly. Making
a living as a wildlife artist in the early 1950's was not easy! This was when
limited edition reproduction prints, as we know them today, did not yet exist
and selling original fine art paintings, one by one, was a very difficult way
to make a living, especially when just out of art school and unrecognized. It
was a struggle for some nine years as he drew heavily from his earlier "roustabout" experiences
to support his family, training horses, digging ditches on construction jobs
and driving truck while trying to establish himself as an artist.
By 1961 Ray had almost given up when he met Wood Hannah, a Louisville businessman
and art collector. Hannah became personally interested and together in 1962 they
founded a publishing company that was the beginning of the Limited Edition print
industry that opened a market for artists everywhere. This market today supports
thousands of artists through the medium of Limited Edition prints and Ray is
proud of this. The public acceptance of Ray Harm wildlife prints in an ensuing
collection, introduced in Kentucky, spread rapidly from coast to coast. He was
in demand as a lecturer, wrote a popular weekly nature column and authored two
illustrated books, but his paintings of wildlife remained primary. His pictures
are appreciated for being from living animals and wildflowers, sketched on location,
not copied photographs (which is so commonly done today). All this coupled with
his extensive knowledge of the subjects he paints, he feels, is more the essence
of fine art as opposed to commercial illustration.
Ray has always been physically close to wildlife, since in his lifetime he has
always lived rural. He still lives with his wife Cathy on their H Rafter Ranch,
very rural with Antelope, Bear, Cougar, Bighorn Sheep, Javelina and a profusion
of the bird life of southern Arizona at his beck and call. His studio is on the
ranch and is always open to interested people by appointment where he is happy
to show original works, discuss painting, commissions and of course chat about
art, wildlife, horses and cattle if the subject suits.
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