Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Six Degrees of Separation





I watched a documentary about author/artist Virginia Lee Burton. She was married to sculptor/teacher George Demetrios and they lived in Folly Cove. They referenced George's artistic lineage and I could hear my drawing teacher Andrew McMillan, who taught me how to draw, recite his artistic lineage


.






















Andy studied with George Demetrios.

























George Demetrios studied with Antoine Bourdelle.




















Antoine Bourdelle studied with Auguste Rodin.


and if you have studied drawing with me, this is part of your artistic lineage.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

World Art Glass

This site is a general resource about art made from glass. It includes extensive link lists for galleries, studios, museums, sources of information, events, organizations, publications, etc.

I will be checking back to this link frequently. If there is anything you want to know about glass, this is a great site! There is a link to it in my sidebar.

enjoy.
deb.

Monday, December 21, 2009

The WIP (work in progress) December 2009


The Big Spender Chorus Line
a glass drawing in progress
verre eglomise, with oil on reverse glass and a mixed media support
24x36"
copyright debbie clarke 2009 gloucester ma

"5 Stand" a glass drawing

"5 Stand", a glass drawing
24x36" verre eglomise, cold glass, marker with mix media canvas support
copyright 2009 debbie clarke

available for purchase through the Windemere Gallery of Arts and Antiques, 20 Main Street,
Rockport MA. gallery contact: 978-546-3513

Sunday, December 20, 2009

She Defies Her Age


a face i remember, 5x5", oil and metal leaf drawing on panel with sharpie marker.
copyright: clarke 2009 gloucester ma

Monday, December 14, 2009

"Holly"


"Holly" 12x12" incised gold leaf drawing on distressed, partially stretched painting.
copyright 2008 debbie clarke, gloucester ma
from an on-going series: faces i remember.

"Winter Flounder" aka "Flounda"


"Winter Flounder" was created in 1995 for The Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester. The painting is reverse glass with oil and metal foil (aka verre eglomise) with a mixed media canvas support. It is one of 7 paintings on permant exhibition at the entrance to the museum's "Maritime Collection". size 24x36" copyright debbie clarke, magnolia ma 1995.
Gloucester photographer Mike Lafferty took some great pics for the museum and provided me with images. The zoom level really shows off the brush strokes and leaf poking through the layers.
The reference to "Flounda" is to my friend of blessed memory Anthony Orlando. He was an aspiring/very talented cartoonist and artist. The last time I saw him he was 20 years old and battling leukemia. May he rest in peace. most of my work has underlying stories to people, events and seasons of my life. this is just one.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

We're a Favorite Place!


this decal arrived in my mail yesterday, congratulating me on being a favorite place, as over 600 people searched for me through my google business listing on Google Maps. The decal comes complete with my own personal barcode that folk can point their i-phones at and the barcode will take folk to my business center link. should i put it on my truck?

Friday, November 27, 2009

Windemere Gallery of Arts & Antiques, Rockport MA

Bill Chisholm left, Debbie Clarke "5 Stand" right
"5 Stand" is a glass drawing 24x36"
installed at Windemere Gallery of Arts & Antiques
Main Street, Rockport MA

Flatrocks Gallery: Small Gifts

above: Debbie Clarke's oil/gild and
glass drawings installed at The Flatrocks Gallery.


Cynthia Switzer Roth of The Flatrocks Gallery in Lanesville MA installing
artist Joy Halsted's offerings for The Small Gifts show, a fundraiser for
The Gloucester Education Foundation.

Invitation to the show. The fundraiser weekend is December 4 - December 6.


Thursday, October 8, 2009

The WIP (work in progress) October 2009, state 2

3 figures, state 2, the figure on the right
changed. i will either eliminate it, or turn it
into a Rembrandt "Saskia" pose, the rushed
figure moving through, in my case out of the
picture plane. My drawing reminds me of
Picasso. the feet remind me of giacometti.
it is definitely me. the painting is a glass panel
36x24", worked on both sides, with an oil painting
on canvas support, it also acts as a shadow wall.
the painting occurs in space, with layers of material
scraping, and re-drawing. it is a palimpsest: the
ground and materials show their use, again and again.

3 figures reflecting my kitchen light.

3 figures: the open guts: 36x48" glass left,
canvas right

figures: guts detail, mirrored silver glass left,
right: canvas shadow wall detail

figures guts detail: left glass back, right canvas


figures: glass front, no canvas support

figures: glass with canvas support






figures detail with mirrored silver
my blogger friend Paul at Cape Ann Painter (he's in my links) thought it might be good to show a step-by-step. there is not step by step to my process, but i thought you might enjoy looking into the guts of my unique glass/canvas paintings. I think of these as drawings and sculpture due to the graphic nature of the work and the art appears in space, changing constantly throughout the day due to light source and the color of the paintings surroundings. a work unto itself. enjoy, i sure do!
best,
deb.






Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The WIP (work in progress) October 2009

Figure Series. 36x24" glass and canvas. full size pic, cropped, no flash. followed by flash, followed by detail, no flash








copyright debbie clarke, gloucester ma 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

St. Peter's Thumbprint


St. Peter's Thumbprint
24x36"
copyright clarke 2009
gloucester ma
2 panes of off-set cold glass with stretched canvas mount
verre eglomise, hand silvered mirror, gold leaf, oil, sharpie marker, tape
dedicated to the memory of my friend Captain Eddie Lima, from whom I first learned of
St. Peter's thumbprint.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Falls Village Connecticut?

Just finished the commission: "St. Peter's Thumbprint" photos will follow when the light allows, lots of mirroring on these fish. brownie points offered for anyone knowing what the title of this fish painting refers to.

on another note my feedjit shows a visit from Falls Village Connecticut. When I was a child my family had a summer home in Falls Village. our house was perched on a hill overlooking the YMCA and the General Store. The extended family would walk on summer afternoons across the bridge near the electric generating station up to the falls to the sluice and the pools below. sometimes my cousin richie would swim in the pools. us younger folk would dally in the errant streams.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Peabody Historical Society & Museum: Historic Interpretation

If you click the title you will be taken to the Peabody Historical Society's site with further information on location, show dates, etc.


There are three of my reverse glass paintings in this show, and they are for sale. Previous entries detail the progress of the work, to see the finale, you must go to the museum. The following 4 works are donated for the raffle. All proceeds to benefit the museum. There is a lot of great work in this show, and the venue is charming with a warm grandparent's home kind of feel.


"Peabody Historical Society's B&W Bath"

18x20", unframed, reverse glass

"An Elephant in the Room"
20x20" mixed media on canvas

"An American Collection"
12x12" reverse glass with metal leaf

"the Things We Keep"
10x10" mixed media, antique lace






a copy of my blurb to accompany my work.

Dear Heather (Lovell curator PHS&M),

Here's the info for the work I will deliver on Saturday sometime between 4 and 5.

1. "An Elephant in the Room": mixed media on canvas, 2009, 20x20"
2. "What we Keep": old lace mixed media, 2009, 10x10"
3. "Peabody Historical B&W Bathroom" verre eglomise mixed media, 2009, 18x20"
4: "An American Collection, artist on art" verre eglomise mixed media, 2009, 12x12"

short bio:

Debbie Clarke works in her kitchen studio in East Gloucester. A life long artist, she began her studies at age 13, in exchange for modeling for his classes, with landscape painter Ken Gore in his East Gloucester studio. A graduate of The Art Institute of Boston '77. Debbie was a founding memeber of Gloucester's longest running artist's cooperative "Local Colors. She taught hundreds of students the art of drawing through her studio/gallery on Lexington Avenue in Magnolia, which ran for 10 years. Her work is in many local and international private and public collections, most notably "The Species", 7 reverse glass paintings of fish at The Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester MA. She is a self representing artist who works regularly on a commissioned basis to manifest the visions of her patrons.

The work produced for the Peabody Historical Society's Historic Interpretation Show has allowed Debbie to work outside of her usual focus on fish and expand her visual language through her discovery of the common ties of 'objects' that define an American legacy: cups, dishes, chairs, lace, etc.

Heather, I would also like to add how important local historical societies are to the communities they represent. As a child I lived for a few years behind the Wenham Museum. For a few pennies donation they regularly allowed me into their museum to spend somewhat unspervised time looking at their doll collection and I explored the world through their stereographs. Seeing the American flag in your society reminded me of the Betsy Ross doll that was (perhaps still is) the centerpiece of their doll collection. and later The Cape Ann Museum (then historical society) and Judith Sargeant Murray House opened my eyes to the reality of how the world literally touched our shores and that the objects of the refined became objects of emulation which defined and represented the cultured mind. I was a religious educator at The Independent Christian Church Unitarian Universalist for 15 years. As I went through your collection it suddenly struck me that every object, and wall paper could be used in a home environment to introduce young minds to the greater world.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Historic Interpretation: AA BB Chair Reel







Two views, same painting, under different light sources. "The face we love the best" (paraphrase Leonardo) becomes incorporated into the glass artwork, as the viewer can see their own reflection in the glass. The artwork constantly changes.


copyright clarke 2009 gloucester ma


clicking the title will bring one to Peabody Historical show that this work is for. My work will be in part 2 opening in August.

Blackie and Wilson


Algae Bloom. Time for a water change, the increased oxygen makes Blackie go dormant. When the weather is warmer, Blackie will go outside to live in a fish pond. We have had a good winter together.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The WIP (work in progress): The Wedding Reel


This is a detail showing the willow ware detail. the glass is backed with a gilded/painted panel. This is my interpretation in response to the collection of The Peabody Historical Society. This year they invited artists to create new work inspired by their historic collection. I have completed one study, and this painting, which is near completion. I have one more idea for the show, then off to the framers. My work will appear in the second have of the show (the first opens this weekend) with an opening in August, showing through September.
clicking the title above will take you to the site of the historicals current exhibitions

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Hake with study


another. Done.
copyright clarke 2009, gloucester ma
oil with gold leaf in reverse glass with panel backing

Done


the button spelled done. and you know what? i think this one is. It is "Female Sockeye" (fresh water (spawning) color on top, salt water color on bottom.
copyright: clarke 2009, gloucester ma
oil with metal leaf on reverse with panel backing.

Monday, March 16, 2009

St Anthony preached and the fish danced


panel 5 (salmon) is on the work table. that's silver leaf, aluminum leaf in the orange 'books' and the gelatin slurry (used to attach the leaf to the glass) in the aluminum pot. this panel is 'this far' (about a scooch) from finish.

i lift the glass, place the gild, look at the work, refine the leaf. this part of the work goes slowly. the fun part is coming up with the design. this takes a few days to do. then the tedious work of gilding, sanding, scraping, re-drawing, re-painting brings the work to conclusion. this part can take weeks, sometimes months to do.

the salmon was started a few months ago.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Frank, my life long mentor


Frank was my high school art teacher. He didn't teach me about drawing or painting (although he eventually did because we had a life long relationship) he met me from the very beginning as artist-to-artist. He knew I was an artist. He knew I would find the teachers I needed to learn drawing, painting, color. What he did for me was to show me there was a way to be an artist in this world, and be true to me "Debbie Clarke" as an artist. He counseled me to find ways to work to support my art through other venues. I gave Frank a show a few years back and we managed to cover his art career in my few short walls. No more words right now. In this photo I think the flowers have become Frank.

The wip (work in progress): panel 4 detail: Merluccius Bilinearis


Sharpie, oil and foil on reverse glass, 23k slow set gold leaf gild on front of glass panel. detail.