Biography
G. Harvey (Gerald Harvey Jones)
(1933-2017)
Known for paintings closely linked in mood and subject matter to Edouard Cortes [1882-1962], G Harvey creates romanticized street scenes of turn of the century towns in America. Rain slick streets reflect urban lights, and the weather is obviously cold. He grew up in the rugged hills north of San Antonio, Texas from where herds of longhorn cattle were once driven up dusty trails to the Kansas railheads. His grandfather was a trail boss at 18 and helped create an American legend for his grandson. So the American West is not only the artist's inspiration but his birthright.
Harvey's early interest in sketching and drawing slowly evolved into a passion for painting in oils. After graduating cum laude from North Texas State University, Harvey took a position with the University of Texas in Austin, but he soon realized that weekends and nights at the easel did not satisfy his love of painting. He abandoned the security of a full-time job in 1963 and threw his total energy into a fine art career. Harvey paints the spirit of America from its western hills and prairies to the commerce of its great cities. His original paintings and bronze sculptures are in the collections of major corporations, prestigious museums, the United States government, American presidents, governors, foreign leader and captains of industry. The Smithsonian Institution chose Harvey to paint The Smithsonian Dream, commemorating its 150th Anniversary. The Christmas Pageant of Peace commissioned Harvey to create a painting celebrating this national event. He has been the recipient of innumerable awards and the subject of three books.
G. Harvey lived in Fredericksburg, Texas, with his wife Pat in a 150-year-old stone home built by German settlers. His studio and residence are nestled within the Historic District of Fredericksburg. It is obligation of fine artists to present us with more than pretty pictures. They must also make us feel. Among the western painters of today, there is none more capable of accomplishing this than G. Harvey. In his paintings, the viewer not only sees the physical elements of his subject, but also senses the mood that surrounds them. It is a remarkable aspect of fine art, which few artists are able to master.
Gerald Harvey Jones was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1933. His grandfather was a cowboy during the trail-driving era when legends grew up along the dusty trails north from Texas. Family stories of wild cattle and tough men were absorbed by a wide-eyed boy and became the genesis of G. Harvey's art. A graduate in fine arts at North Texas State University, Harvey taught full-time and painted nights and weekends for several years. It was through painting that he found his greatest satisfaction, and his native central Texas hill country provided the inspiration for most of his earliest work. With the development of his talent and the growth of his following, Harvey began to expand his artistic horizons. He left teaching and concentrated on a career in fine art. He sought the essence that is Texas and found it not only along the banks of the Guadalupe, but in cow camps west of the Pecos, and in the shadows of tall buildings in big Texas cities. The streets of Dallas once echoed with the sound of horse hooves and the jingle of spurs. Historic photographs reveal what it looked like, but only an artist like Harvey can enable a viewer to experience the mood and flavor or the time. Contemporary western art has too often centered on the literal representations from its roots in illustrations. Artists like G. Harvey take us a step further, to the subjective impressions that are unique to each great talent and which constitutes something special and basic to fine art expression.
Harvey was a soft-spoken and unassuming man who cared deeply about what he painted without becoming maudlin or melodramatic. We sense there is more in each Harvey painting than just that which is confined to the canvas.
Resources include: The American West: Legendary Artists of the Frontier, Dr. Rick Stewart, Hawthorne Publishing Company, 1986
Artist G. Harvey grew up in the rugged hills north of San Antonio, Texas from where herds of longhorn cattle were once driven up dusty trails to the Kansas railheads. His grandfather was a trail boss at 18 and helped create an American legend. The American West is not only the artist's inspiration but his birthright. Harvey's early interest in sketching and drawing slowly evolved into a passion for painting in oils. After graduation cum laude from North Texas State University, Harvey took a position with the University of Texas in Austin, but he soon realized that weekends and nights at the easel did not satisfy his love of painting. He abandoned the security of a full-time job in 1963 and threw his total energy into a fine art career. Two years as a struggling artist followed, but 1965 brought acclaim for the artist's first prestigious show, The Grand National exhibition in New York, and the American Artists' Professional League presented him with their New Master's Award. President Lyndon Johnson discovered his fellow Texan's talent, became a Harvey collector and introduced John Connally to the artist's work. Connally was enthusiastic about Harvey's art and, on one occasion, he presented a G. Harvey original to each governor of Mexico's four northern states. Harvey paints the spirit of America from its western hills and prairies to the commerce of its great cities. His original paintings and bronze sculptures are in the collections of major corporations, prestigious museums, the United States government, American presidents, governors, foreign leader and captains of industry. The Smithsonian Institution chose Harvey to paint The Smithsonian Dream commemorating its 150th Anniversary. The Christmas Pageant of Peace commissioned Harvey to create a painting celebrating this national event. He has been the recipient of innumerable awards and the subject of three books. Through his art, our history lives.
Gerald Harvey Jones, better known as G. Harvey, grew up in the Texas Hill Country listening to his father and grandfather tell stories about ranch life, frontier days in Texas, and driving cattle across the Red River. Early in his career, he began to draw inspiration from that collective memory for paintings that would eventually earn him the reputation as one of America's most recognized and successful artists. His art is rooted in the scenic beauty of the land he grew up in and the staunch independence of the people who live there. He says, "My paintings have never been literal representations. They are part first-hand experience, and part dreams generated by those early stories I heard. They are a product of every place I have been, everything I have ever seen and heard." G. Harvey graduated from North Texas State University. He taught in Austin, but continued to study art in his spare time, eventually devoting full time to his painting. The year 1965 was a turning point when he won the prestigious New Masters Award in the American Artist Professional League Grand National Exhibition in New York. It is often said that in viewing a work of art, one is granted a unique look into the thoughts and expressions of values that give meaning to the artist work. Nowhere does this ring truer than the art of G. Harvey. Though Harvey has had nearly two decades of sell-out shows, an outstanding honor came with a series of one-man shows in Washington, D.C. in 1991. The first was at the National Archives featuring his paintings of the Civil War era, then a selection of paintings of notable Washington landmarks was exhibited at the Treasury Department, culminating in a one-man show of 35 paintings at the Smithsonian Institution during their exhibition of The All-American Horse. His work was featured in Gilcrease Museum exhibitions from 1992-1997. In 1987 his alma matter honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Award. One of Harvey's paintings was featured on the cover of Smithsonian Institution's 150th anniversary engagement book. He now has four books published. Integrity, strength, courage, faith, heritage - these are compelling words that have often been used by collectors and art critics alike to describe that intrinsic value that courses through every original painting or sculpture by artist G. Harvey.
Whether drawing inspiration from his own deeply rooted Texas heritage, the human experience is fully revealed in his art. He is often credited with technical brilliance as his goal is to approach each subject with discipline, maturity and artistic integrity. Yet beyond this vast and well-schooled knowledge, is a deeper set of values, an inner luminosity that transcends time and place, evoking familiar sights, sounds, moods and emotions. Lyndon Johnson introduced his works to John Connally who presented a G Harvey original to the governors of four Northern Mexican states. He celebrated a one-man show at the Smithsonian Institution entitled The All-American Horse.
Harvey has always believed that history lives through art including the epic struggle between the states, the western migration, the brief time when horses and automobiles clattered across cobblestones together. He is faithfully able to capture the drama and feeling of such a moment in time. His light from windows, etc was inspired by artist Edouard Cortes' technique.
