John Harne was born in 1956 near Ocean City, New Jersey. His father spend a career in the military and the family lived in many locations with the artist spending most of his teenage years in Maine. He has kept studios in Western Maryland, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia and currently in Homosassa, Florida, a rural area on the gulf coast of Florida.

Harne never attended art school nor had a significant mentor in painting. He independantly studied watercolor and life drawing for several years before launching his art career as a photo-realist painter. The Bienville Gallery in New Orleans gave him his first exhibition at age 19 in 1977. By the early 1980’s he was exhibiting in WDC, Baltimore and New York and his work had shifted to a surreal narrative style focused on myths and allegory. Attracted to the East Village art scene he moved to NYC in 1984 and exhibited in numerous galleries there. Nearly a decade later he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, renting an artist’s loft at the King Plow Art Center.

While he continued to paint and exhibit, his creative efforts were pulled in many directions for over thirty years. Eventually Harne developed his current style and rediscovered his attraction to realism with watercolor and oil painting. When not in his studio, he loves to travel to remote and rural locations in search of inspiration. He credits his spiritual faith in Christ for his renewed life and work.