Artist: Claudia Hartley, American

Title: Valley Home

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 24” x 18” Unframed

Hartley’s bright and “HAPPY” style is evident in this acrylic landscape of a home nestled in the valley. The bold daubs of color in the sky and trees are reminiscent of post Impressionist painters of the late 19^th century but she brings a fresh newness to the style. She juxtaposes every set of complimentary colors in each layer of this landscape to enrich its joyful mood exponentially.

Born in California, but raised in Kentucky and Georgia. Claudia Hartley’s love affair with art began as a child, when her favorite present was a new box of Crayola crayons. She went on to earn a BFA Degree in Painting and Drawing in 1967 from the University of Georgia, married, raised two children and taught art during those years. She ran an art school in Atlanta many years with about 100 students per week with kids and adults. She painted for galleries and also painted oil portraits, joining the Atlanta Portrait Society. She has painted out of Arizona for many years.

Her exuberant paintings can best be described in her words as "happy”. The Phoenix Magazine described how, “Mountains, valleys and trees become an abstract collection of sweeping, boxy bright yellows, oranges, reds, purples and pastels – along with her signature white clouds and layered squares of blue and ochre sky…. Coloring-book lines, paint-by-number kits and the post-Impressionists are among her influences. Her blue square skies are reminiscent of Georges Seurat’s pointillism. Hartley’s “dots” are painted with a thicker brush, longer strokes and less paint.”