Harvey found that a variety of subjects, including landscapes, could often be more subtly effective as pretexts for human emotions than just the human figure itself. She is interested in finding appropriate compositions and palettes to stir particular feelings. She uses the calendar/grid format and more recently, the horizontal line, to evoke a psychologically reassuring calm.

Although her palette and forms are easily recognizable as views of nature, they are never actual geographical locations and are sometimes distilled to near abstraction. Using an encaustic technique, a completed painting is entombed in multiple layers of wax. The mixture can be opaque and creamy, or thin and translucent; like looking into ice.

Danna Harvey is engaged in a continuing process of self-examination, and her paintings are created out of a need for personal resolve. The paintings are quiet and hopefully they reflect the painter’s pursuit of a quiet spirit.