Jianyu Zhao)

Harper, however, is not a native Californian. Born in Lexington, Ky., and brought up by her grandmother, Harper thought she would be an architect rather than an artist, because Harper’s first artwork was a piece of cot, with her grandmother’s help.

“I always made things, and I really came to arts very late,” said Harper.

After the last child of her four children started kindergarten, Harper and her husband decided to move to Southern California. When they settled down, Harper came up with the idea that she had to do something for herself.

“I wanted to focus on myself, so I went back to school. But when I studied at Otis, they asked me to apply. So I had to drop my job at the kindergarten, and went back to school. Just like a U-turn in my life,” said Harper.

Harper got her bachelor degree at the Otis Art Institute. During that time, Harper built her own studio in Downtown Los Angeles, and prepared for her Master of Fine Arts at the California State University.

“I didn’t really start making art and become a professional artist until I was 50 years old,” said Harper.

But the interest of drawing architectures deeply rooted in Harper's mind when she was a child, even if she did not mean to do so.

“Even in the little drawings I did on the sides of my school books as a child, I always had an architecture in there,” said Harper.

When Harper became older, she increasingly found it fascinating of the architectures. From her perspective, architecture represents the way one person chooses to enclose the space, and tell so many stories about the people who live in that area, and their thinking. Harper was just obsessed about it.

“The bold outlines against the sky, sunlight washing over everything, and the patterns made by the buildings themselves have always been an endless source of fascination,” said Harper, in a dreamy voice.

 In addition to being an artist, Harper’s second love is teaching. Harper has joined St. Matthew's Parish School part time, teaching Art and Art History for students from fourth to seventh grade for a number of years.

“I still find them interesting and energetic. And I watch what they do, and I can’t help getting enthusiasm from them. And now, with the technology, I’m watching them doing so many things that I quite don’t understand. So they are teaching me now,” said Harper very proudly.

Harper enjoys being a part of the lives of so many children and families. She loves watching her students grow in their ability to make art and to learn to make positive choices for themselves that will see them through the rest of their lives. Harper feels fortunate being an artist as well as a teacher, because she believes that each facet of her life enriches the other parts.

Harper’s architectural painting record most pieces of changes in a city vast and multifarious as Los Angeles. Harper feels it hard to catch the essence at once, so she usually spends most time in observing the ever-changing fragments before starting a new work. The themes of Harper’s vary from webs of skyscrapers to her favorite restaurant. Harper collects all these elements, and then stitches the images together into an urban mosaic.

“I believe that my work serves as an informal documentation of the area in which I live and work,” said Harper.

See more of Fielden Harper's works here.

Reach Staff Reporter Jianyu Zhao here.