Charley Harper Leather Pocket Journal

Embossed leather cover in honey color

144 pages suitable for pen or pencil

Lined pages 3½ x 5½ in.

Ribbon bookmark

Decorative box

Charley Harper (American, 1922–2007) loved animals and nature but was quick to remind folks that he was an artist, not a naturalist. He learned to love nature and wildlife as a child growing up in rural West Virginia, and he developed his unique “minimal realist” style while a student at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the Art Students League in New York City. Brett Harper, son of Charley and his artist wife, Edie (American, 1922–2010), recalls that his father “never owned or used a computer to draw. Rather, Charley maintained a collection of . . . compasses, T squares, and french curves with which he applied lines to paper via a ruling pen filled with india ink.” Using geometric shapes, patterns, and vivid colors, Harper simplified nature’s complexities and brought out the personality of each critter he drew.