About
Maureen Harvey with Super Summer Sunday mural, Sherwood Park, Alberta, 1996
“It doesn’t matter what your work is: if you love it, you’re truly blessed.”
Maureen R. Harvey is an Alberta painter with an international reputation. Maureen’s multimedia art works convey a delightful sense of humour and fun in a fanciful and highly personal style. Unexpected colours, lyrical compositions, and lively painting energize all of Maureen’s creations. Maureen’s imaginative approach to her subjects is her calling card.
Having exhibited and installed commissions all over Alberta and across Canada, Maureen has also shown and her works are in private collections in Japan, China, England, USA, Mexico, and the Bahamian Islands. Currently, Maureen works from her former Catholic church studio that’s perched on a hill near the lakeside home she shares with husband John.
Meeting Maureen brings you to the spritely energy that is so evident in her work. Eager to share a laugh, Maureen leans in and listens closely, looking to reflect your story in her distinctly colourful, articulate way. Maureen often talks with her hands and the rest of her body, illustrating ideas large. It’s no surprise that building-sized mural-making consumed the bulk of Maureen’s career.
Born and raised in Edmonton, Canada, Maureen Harvey (then Maureen O’Neill) earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California in Los Angeles in 1962. Maureen occupied the following three years as a freelancing designer and colour consultant in Ottawa and Edmonton—and married John Harvey in 1963. Between 1966 and 1970, Maureen and John lived in Montreal, where Maureen began dividing her time between painting, designing, and caring for the first three of four children, John, Michele, and Colleen. In 1969, Maureen studied drawing and painting at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. 1971 brought the family back to Edmonton—by car camping—where Maureen continued her work in drawing, painting, and printmaking at the University of Alberta Extension department. Son David came along soon after, and the purchases of both a house in Edmonton and a farm property on a tiny lake near Athabasca.
Maureen has led drawing, painting, and other artistic workshops, has been a juror and curator on art projects, and was three-time president of the Alberta Society of Artists (1990-92).
Learn more about Maureen’s professional artist life through her CVs, and about her blended personal and artistic life by reading her stories.