Sam Hugh Harris, an international artist, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1919. His father, Samuel Hyde Harris, was a renowned plein-air artist in California.Harris started his vocation at an early age, studying portraiture and life painting at the Otis Art Institute, in Los Angeles on scholarship. During World War II he served in the U.S. Air Force in India and China. While he was there he had time to study Chinese painting in Kunming under a Chinese professor of the arts. In India he painted several murals for the U.S. Special Services. After the War, Sam moved to Monterey, CA with his wife Gertrude and studied at the Carmel Art Institute with John Cunningham and Alexander Archipenko, among others. He rented a small studio on Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey and often painted the harbor and boats. There he would meet John Steinbeck (the author of Cannery Row and The Grapes of Wrath) and Ed Ricketts (the famed ecologist and philosopher). Sam exhibited with other Monterey artists known as “The New Group” at the Pal Wall Gallery in Monterey. Most of Harris's career was spent in Europe, where he traveled and painted extensively. He moved to Europe in 1964, settling in Paris for five years where his art flourished . Later he resided in Rome for many years. He has been the recipient of numerous prizes and his works have been acquired by collectors in Europe and the United States. His artistic expression included portraiture, murals and landscapes in oil and watercolor. At the end of his life, Harris was living in Carmel with his wife Silvana. He was one of the longest active artist members of the Carmel Art Association.