Painter offers his old self, and a little something new.Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard Eugene painter Mark Clarke Mark Clarke may refer to:
Lighthouse paintings, as a lot, tend to be sentimental, literal and kitschy - not far, artistically speaking, above paintings of sunsets, dogs and cats. Clarke's splendid painting of the lighthouse at Yaquina Head Yaquina Head is a spit of land jutting out into the Pacific Ocean north of the American city of Newport, Oregon. It is the site of the Yaquina Head Light, and is managed as Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. is none of the above. With its tilted horizon emphasized by a long horizontal format, and with a dark squall moving in from the west toward the beautifully formed rocks of the head, the painting captures the melancholy that infuses much of the landscape painting that Clarke has become known for during his lengthy career. "Distant Lighthouse" is among a gallery full of new paintings by Clarke now on display at his daughter's art gallery downtown, the Karin Clarke Gallery. The show closes on Saturday, so there's just time to catch it if you haven't been there already. An Oregon native who grew up in Junction City Junction City, city (1990 pop. 20,604), seat of Geary co., NE Kans., at the confluence of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers; inc. 1859. The rail, trade, and processing center of an agricultural and dairy area, it grew as the supply point for nearby Fort Riley, , Clarke is a lifelong student of the Northwest landscape in all its vague and misty beauty. His painting is heavily influenced by the regional art that's preceded him. Look into a Clarke landscape and you can see traces of the brooding Northwest mystics, such as Morris Graves Morris Cole Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter and a founder of the Northwest School (art). Early years Born the sixth son of a Methodist family in Fox Valley, Oregon, Graves was a country boy. and Kenneth Callahan Kenneth Callahan (1905 in Spokane, Washington–1986) was a noted 20th century artist and a founder of the Northwest School. Largely self-taught, he travelled extensively through Europe, Latin America, and the United States. . Clarke has evolved a technique that's well suited to our atmospheric environment The envelope of air surrounding the Earth, including its interfaces and interactions with the Earth's solid or liquid surface. . He creates paintings in acrylics - though you would be forgiven for mistaking them for oils - out of a quiet, subdued palette that's still rich and complex. Clarke has pushed that approach to a near extreme in "Drifting/Winter." This silhouette of a man in a drift boat is nearly monochromatic monochromatic /mono·chro·mat·ic/ (-kro-mat´ik) 1. existing in or having only one color. 2. pertaining to or affected by monochromatic vision. 3. staining with only one dye at a time. - but look again, and you find lots of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed. See also: Color buried in those shades of gray. The painting is so simple and gorgeous it feels like a quiet prayer. The artist has been busy with more than just landscape painting, which fills about half the gallery space in this exhibit. In the other half of his new show, Clarke has stepped out of his usual mold and created a series of portraits and figures. This new work is less polished and predictable than his landscapes. Clarke has been playing around technically in the studio, experimenting with palette knives and primitive tools such as sticks and rags. In one painting, titled "Masks," he's done some cubist-style visual analysis, and most of the portraits have a definite post-impressionist look to them, with flat color areas and dark-lined edges to the figures. In a portrait titled "Child," Clarke veers far from his usual dark look. A boy (or is it a girl?) wearing a striped shirt under a green coat looks coolly out at the viewer. Behind the figure and surrounding it are green and red leaves, forming a casual design around the portrait. The colors are unusually bright for Clarke's work, and the expression is almost harsh. With "Older Man in Landscape," on the other hand, Clarke puts the figure back into familiar terrain. In this very vertical and darkly conceived painting, a hulking hulk·ing also hulk·y adj. Unwieldy or bulky; massive. hulking Adjective big and ungainly Adj. 1. figure of a man stands on what must be the Oregon Coast, brooding and phlegmatic phlegmatic /phleg·mat·ic/ (fleg-mat´ik) of dull and sluggish temperament. phleg·mat·ic or phleg·mat·i·cal adj. 1. Of or relating to phlegm. 2. , slouched against the cold weather and life itself. EXHIBIT REVIEW Mark Clarke: Paintings What: New work by Eugene painter Mark Clarke Where: Karin Clarke Gallery, 760 Willamette St. When: Through Saturday Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday CAPTION(S): ``Shed on Hill'' by Mark Clarke is included in an exhibit of his new work now on display in downtown Eugene. |
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