Joan Ramsey Harker was born in Edmonton, and has painted for pleasure all her life.  She attended painting classes for eight years at the Edmonton Art Gallery during her school years.  In 1964 she received a Bachelor of Interior Design from the School of  Architecture at the University of Manitoba. During her 36 year career she worked as a designer in architectural offices in Toronto and Vancouver, and as a designer, facilities manager, and planning manager for the Insurance Corporation of BC. Joan moved to Alexandria after retirement in 2000, and has become increasingly involved in the arts in Quesnel.

Painting is her first love and now absorbs most of her time. Since her retirement and move to the Cariboo in 2000, Joan has spent increasing time painting, until for the last year she has been planning her work and painting every day. Her home and studio is on the side of the Fraser River in Alexandria, where she enjoys the seasonal changes in the landscape, a modest garden, two companion dogs, and the many kinds of wildlife that call the river valley home or highway.

Joan had solo exhibitions in Williams Lake and Quesnel in 2005, and regularly exhibits in the Quesnel Art Gallery, the Breeze Gold and Gallery and in Artsfest, the Central Interior Regional Arts Council annual juried show . In 2007 she was accepted as an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, and this year had two paintings accepted for the TNSC Chapter Show in Kamloops. This is her first show in Wells.