November 2026 - Karin Harris

Morning mist gathers over pale water in Karin Harris’ “Cattails in Morning Mist.” Reeds bend across the foreground; stems reflect in blue-violet water.

Trees emerge in olive and muted gold, then dissolve again. In “Road to Smith Rock State Park,” a path leads toward sunlit cliffs while blue-green shadows stripe the road and stretch into the landscape.

Near the center, an opening of warm light seems to hold the scene in place. These paintings
capture how light and emotion transform what Harris sees.

Drawn to watercolor’s transparency, movement, flow, and mystery, Harris paints landscapes and botanicals. “The work always challenges me to find the striking balance between disciplined control and raw atmospheric fluidity,” she notes. Harris walks through her gardens and along trails, responding to color, form, and light. Each painting captures her unique response to what she observes.

As a young girl, Harris had her first life-changing encounter with art in her grandmother’s attic, where she discovered a chest of her mother’s hidden artwork. That afternoon she decided that art needed to be shared so others could see it. Harris graduated magna cum laude in the arts from Southern Oregon State University and began exhibiting in Portland galleries during the 1980s.

She later owned a Pearl District gallery, An Artist’s Place, while teaching art at Marylhurst College and Multnomah Arts Center. In the 1990s, she led art and cultural tours through Europe and Latin America. Harris concludes that these journeys brought depth, perspective, and luminosity to her work. “What I gained after a decade of artistic sojourns was a more colorful palette and a deeper understanding of how geography shapes perception.

Harris then moved to Maui, where she and her husband owned a business for 14 years.
There, she worked in space planning and design for clients on Maui, Lanai, and Molokai. The
work sharpened her instincts for shape, color, and light. When Harris returned to the West
Coast, to the desert of Southern California, she discovered a different quality of light, along
with new patterns, shadows, and desert colors. Harris became an active painter, exhibitor,
teacher, and judge, earning honors including recognition as one of the top Painters of the
Year.

She also earned Demonstrator’s Choice, and multiple ribbons from the Coachella Valley
Watercolor Society, the Desert Plein Air Association, and Riverside Festivals.

Now based in Redmond, Harris works in her canyon-rim home and light-filled studio where she
paints each day. She exhibits with the Hood Avenue Art Gallery and the Dry Canyon
Community Art Center, trading California colors for junipers, mist, and the monumental
forms of Smith Rock. Heat, shadow, open sky, and changing distance become subjects of
their own. “It would be my best reward if an art critic understood how much I strive to
respond to and not just report what I see,” Harris says.

Light is often where Harris begins. “I love to go out walking or hiking, taking as many photos
as I can to capture the organic nature of botanicals and landscape scenes that inspire
me as much as the dance of light around them,” she says. “I may work from several
photographs at once.

One offers a strong silhouette, another an arrangement of shadows. Memory may
supply the color the lens missed.”

Teaching continues to remain central to Harris’s practice. She currently offers
classes through Old Town Artisan Studios, Ironwood Artist, Sun City, El Dorado Hills,
and Four Seasons, with new workshops at the Dry Canyon Community Art Center.
“Color gets all the glory, but value does all the work,” she tells her students. Harris
demonstrates her philosophy and painting techniques, building a foundation in color
theory, value, and design while helping students strengthen their skills and find a
personal style. Her hope is to inspire students to build confidence and respond
in original ways to the world around them.

For more information about Harris, see her website: KarinHarris.pixpa.com