"Kittle" Painting

Tim Harper. Contemporary artist. Advocate for children. Surfer. Husband. Dad. Resident of San Francisco, California.  I think most artists fall into a certain style or art movement that defines their body of work, but I have so many ideas in my head, I tend to move from one style to another, based on the idea.

My love for art crosses many boundaries, many styles. I am very diverse and interested in just about every movement in art. Maybe that makes me an art chameleon. I can identify with the variety of styles and creations out in the world and that is incorporated into my work. That fuels my drive to create and be innovative. My biggest influences come from the Fauves and abstract modernism. I love color, energy and interest. I also love the written word and tend to put that on my paintings.

Assemblage is also important to me, as seen in my Urban Attraction and Sports Figures series. Paint and anything I can rip up and put on the canvas - printed words and images from magazines. I draw a lot of inspiration from modern day artist, Mark Bradford, and Romare Beardon, the collage artist from Harlem. Great use of color and composition. My Urban Attraction series combines my love of world cities and abstract mixed media paintings. Big, bright, colorful. They are a burst of color from across the room, but a myriad of detail to look at up close.

When I am not painting, I am the Executive Director of Harper for Kids, a charitable organization that I co-founded with my wife, Peanut Louie Harper, a former professional tennis player ranked in the top twenty in the world. Harper for Kids helps schools teach kids about character building based on UCLA Coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success.

I studied painting at the University of Florida, the University of Hawaii, and at the San Francisco Art Institute. My work is regularly featured with the Bay Area artists exhibits that are sponsored by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and have recently captured the attention of major collectors in Los Angeles and New York.