Sam Harris, an international artist, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1919. His father was a renowned open-air artist of 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 was in the U.S. Air Force serving 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, Harris studied at the Carmel Art Institute, where he lived and built a home in neighboring Monterey.

Most of Harris's career was spent in Europe, where he traveled extensively while painting and exhibiting. He moved to Europe in 1964, settling in Paris for five years where his art flourished and also Rome, where he resided for many years. He has been the recipient of many prizes and his works have been acquired by collectors all over Europe and in the United States.


He presently resides and paints in Carmel with his Italian wife Silvana, continuing his artistic expression in portraiture, murals, and landscapes in oil and watercolor.