“Why I paint what I paint: Horses are beautiful in their line, form and movement; dogs bring much joy to our lives, and when I paint landscapes outside on location, I feel I am nearest to God than most other times.” Heidi Harner


The plains of North Dakota inspired Heidi Harner’s appreciation of wide open spaces. Her love of animals she attributes to her mother who was instrumental in establishing their local Humane Society in Minot. Heidi melded the two with a life long interest in art. She first studied watercolor then found her niche in oil. She enjoys both plein air and studio painting.

Her favorite subjects are landscapes, especially scenes of North Dakota, nature in general, farm animals, dogs and horses.

Horses have become a driving force in her art. She spends as much time as possible on the Nokota Horse Conservancy in south central North Dakota. There she studies the horses, how they interact, their surroundings and everything she can
possibly learn from them. She spends hours on the prairie capturing their movements in the different light on canvas with oil. When she can’t be there in person, she uses the many photographs she takes to work from in her studio.

In the fall of 2010, Heidi took a class from David Slonim. In the class she studied the masters and now as she says, "Is obsessed with reading up on John Singer Sargent, Andrew Wyeth, Anton Mauve, Mary Cassatt, Joaquin Sorolla, Carolyn Anderson (a living master artist) and more. You can see the influence of the class and especially that of Andrew Wyeth in her newest work, "Early Evening Barn" and John Singer Sargent's Arabian horses in "Bedouin Tack".

Heidi has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Purdue University in Indiana and uses her experiences as a professional art conservation framer to help refine her natural abilities as an artist. She is an associate member of the Women Artists of the West (www.waow.org) and has been featured in a number of publications including, The Cowboy Way, Horses in Art Magazine and GaWaNi Pony Boy’s book, “Of Women and Horses: More Reflections of the Magical Bond,” published by Bowtie Press, 2005. Her work can be seen online at Dakota Rocks Studio, Contemporary Western Design.com or on her website.