Brooke Harker's Bicycle Paintings at The Water Gallery, Venice Art Crawl March 17, 2011

The first thing you notice is vibrant color, incredibly vivid colorful images. A smile comes to your face; the energy practically leaps off the canvas. Brooke Harker has been painting since she was a child, In fact she began her training at seven years old in University art classes, right alongside her Mom’s easel…silently watching, taking it all in.

Harker was raised in Iowa, where she first started painting and continued to pursue her passion.. Early in her career she worked as a stage designer, then, was offered the chance to work with children. At that point, she realized, this too was a passion for her and decided to combine the two. Brooke has worked extensively with children from all over the world such as Japan, China, Italy, Germany as well as the United States.

In fact, Brooke Harker’s paintings were recently featured as part of Global Art Exhibit. A non profit helping kids in need in underdeveloped regions of Tibet T.A.R. China, Cambodia, Thailand and Southern India.

Harker donated one-hundred percent of sales from two of the paintings and ten percent of every other painting sold to help benefit children in a Tibetan school and orphanage.

This past year, two of Brooke’s pieces were featured on Fox’s hit TV show “Hell’s Kitchen”. Her work has been featured in many exhibits at noteworthy establishments, such as VOCA Gallery in Venice, Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis, Fritto Misto in Santa Monica, Stanley's in Sherman Oaks, Catalyst U, The Eclectic in Noho, Sponto Gallery, NOHO Gallery LA,Noho Art Scene, M Street, Bourgeois Pig and select pieces in the Beverly Hills Affaire in the Gardens.

You can see Brooke Harker’s work in her solo show entitled Bicycle Paintings in this month’s (March) Venice Art Crawl at The Water Gallery (curated by Leila Levi) is located at 18 North Venice, right off Speedway, by the beach. Harker’s fascination with bicycles began when she lived in Beijing. Mesmerized, not only by the crazy variety, but also the amazing amount of cyclists on one street, she spent that summer snapping photos, then creating an entire exhibition based on her love for bicycles. The opening reception for Bicycle Paintings will be held from 6:00 pm till 9:00 pm. Enjoy refreshments, snacks and wine.

Sababa Restaurant & Lounge will also be featuring Brooke Harker’s work through May 6th, 20 pieces to be exact. Sababa is located in Long Beach at 6527 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach Ca 90803. (562) 252-3572. http://www.gosababa.com/.

To see more of Brooke’s work go to http://www.brookeharker.com/.