About Sharon Harms | Hyperrealistic Still Life Painter

Artist Statement

My hyper-realistic still life paintings begin with an intuitive process. I gather objects not with a specific story in mind, but by responding to symbolism, memory, and an instinctive sense that certain things belong together. Every composition grows from a single object that has captured my curiosity, something that seems to have more to say than its surface suggests. As I add other objects, connections appear and unexpected stories begin to emerge.

I am drawn to things that carry meaning beyond their physical presence — anatomical models, vintage toys, typewriters, glass figurines, advertising ephemera. Each one functions as both personal relic and cultural artifact, holding individual memory and shared experience simultaneously. My titles reflect this intent. Rather than being descriptions of arrangements, they're fragments of larger stories, deliberately left open for the viewer to complete.

With the objects in place, I turn to the discipline of hyperrealism. Working in oil, I pursue a command of surface, light, and texture that asks the eye to question what is painted and what is real. I am inspired by the photorealist tradition of Audrey Flack and Ralph Goings, and the narrative sensibility of contemporary hyperrealist Scott Fraser, all artists who proved that carefully chosen objects could carry deep personal and cultural meaning. From that tradition I take both technical discipline and the conviction that ordinary objects are never merely ordinary.

For me, the still life is not an endpoint but a doorway. My work is a space where intuition and precision meet, where the imagined becomes real, and where nothing is simply still.

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Bio

Raised in rural western Michigan, I excelled at drawing and painting from an early age. I began working as a graphic designer in 1973 at the age of 16 and went on to have a long career as an award-winning advertising art director. In 2020, I began pursuing painting full-time.

My work is heavily influenced by my time in the advertising industry where I honed my skills as a visual communicator and storyteller. Although I have taken an introductory college painting class, I am otherwise self-taught as an artist.

My paintings have been selected by juries in national and international competitions and exhibitions including the International FiKVA Award for Painters in Belgium, Butler Institute of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Nashville, Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, and the American Women Artists Association. My work has also been featured in leading art publications such as Artists Magazine, Create! Magazine, Studio Visit Magazine, ArtFluent, and Visual Art Journal and is held in several private collections.

I currently live in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Exhibitions & Competitions

2026

Almenara Art Prize 2026, International Painting Competition, Two Works Selected for Online Exhibition, Córdoba, Spain

HER.SELF, International Juried Exhibition, ArtFluent.com

Still Lifes, Shifting Narratives, Solo Exhibition, Customs House Museum, Clarksville, Tennessee

Homiens Art Prize, International Art Competition Winter 2025, Finalist, New York, NY

FiKVA Award for Painters 2026, International Competition, Honorable Mention, Antwerp, Belgium

2025

Boynes Art Prize 12th Edition, International Competition, 3rd Place Winner, Melbourne, Australia

Homiens Art Prize, International Art Competition Spring 2025, Highly Commended Artist, New York, NY

Almenara Art Prize 2025, International Painting Competition, Four Works Selected for Online Exhibition, Córdoba, Spain

FiKVA Award for Painters 2025, International Competition, Top 50 finalist, Antwerp, Belgium

CollexArt Grand Prize Art Call, International Competition, Artist Profile Winner, Portland, Maine

2024

Allied Artists of America 111th Annual Exhibition, National Invitational Exhibition, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio

Hyperrealism, Group Exhibition, Blue Spiral 1 Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina

2023

Annual Online Juried Show, National Juried Exhibition, American Women Artists

Up in Arms, Juried Exhibition, The Museum of Contemporary Art Nashville (MOCAN) in partnership with Cë Gallery and Arts4Impact, Nashville, Tennessee

Still, International Juried Exhibition, Awarded Best of Slow, ArtFluent.com

FiKVA Award for Painters 2023, International Competition, Top 100 finalist, Antwerp, Belgium

At Rest: A Still Life Invitational, Group Exhibition, Customs House Art Museum, Clarksville, Tennessee

Pushing Forward Reaching Back, National Juried Exhibition, American Women Artists, Brookgreen Gardens Museum, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina

She, International Juried Exhibition, ArtFluent.com

2022

FiKVA Award for Painters 2022, International Competition, Top 35 finalist, Antwerp, Belgium

Mood, International Juried Exhibition, ArtFluent.com

Mimic, International Juried Exhibition, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio

Spring Online Exhibition, National Juried Exhibition, American Women Artists

Feminist Insight: Telling Her Story, National Juried Exhibition, Ellington-White Contemporary Gallery, Fayetteville, North Carolina

Breaking Through: The Rise of American Women Artists, National Juried Exhibition, American Women Artists, Customs House Art Museum, Clarksville, Tennessee

2021

Narrative Still Life, National Juried Exhibition, Catholic Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois

ViewPoint 53, Cincinnati Art Club’s National Juried Exhibition, Cincinnati, Ohio