Debbie Clarke June 2011

Building an Empire Show!

Debbie Clarke

June 2011

Gloucester MA

location:  Public 

The box contains 18 completed packing tape and leaf works.  There are enough stretchers to complete 12 more (2down/1 in process).  This is the work that represents my 'winter' work cycle; which is, usually, spent working with paper, wax, gild.  This year packing tape is the newest material to enter the mix.  

This work is rarely shown as it is experimental, the place of dreams, usually on the studio wall until packed away.  This will be a rare light in Gloucester with a glimpse into my winter world where I demand more and more of my materials.  It is challenging to not work with a figurative intent.   When a figure appears, it comes out of the process, as oppossed to imposed upon the surface.

When this cycle is completed I will set up the outside oil studio and continue the black foil series with a focus on the palimpsest.

best,

deb

"This is Karen" a drawing for an artist in training

This is Karen, the completed work documented in my earlier 'wip'  in the series "Faces I Remember".  It is finished.  During the process that brought the work to this point I was continually critiquing the work.  I kept trying to get the eyes above the one third, but my inclination was to keep cutting the 'shape' down.  This morning I finally decided to find the center of my canvas.  Wouldn't you know it?  French painter Pierre Bonnard's words critiqued the work, he said:  "There should be nothing in the center of a painting."  Then portrait artist Helen Van Wyck words critiqued the work:  "In a portrait the eyes should be around the one third point."  then I said:  The Hell you say!  I'm still in training!  This is Karen and this is the way I do it.  I broke the rules, yet it works.  why?  because it is didactic and self referential.
so, there.

"This is Karen"  a training drawing
copyright debbie clarke
gloucester ma 2010
mixed media on canvas 12x16"
$275 including shipping, no frame
cash or money order only.
US continental sales only.
3-4 weeks for delivery.

"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

Katy 2008

"Katy 2008"

10x10" oil and composition leaf on canvas

copyright debbie clarke 2008

gloucester ma

Her Shape Too (23k gold leaf and chalk on panel)

just finished. 12x12" panel
under 2 light sources, without flash:



with flash:

Work in Progress: Madame B. stage 2 and 3

Above is stage 2. the canvas is 30x32, mixed media with aluminum leaf, oil, egg tempera, chalk. this has been in the works for 2 years. I pulled it from the racks a month ago and started to rework it. Below is stage 3, as of yesterday afternoon. The values are very close, so i had to up the contrast and intensity, so that it would photograph. The work needs to be removed from the stretchers and re-stretched or placed on a board. The painting has been sanded and re-colored, the drawing refined. I am 'in-between' looking within, trying to determine if gold should be introduced.

My posts will continue to be intermittent. No internet at home, trying to live within a very tight budget. Until the next time the signal gods grant me some air time, dream some, write some, look some, paint or doodle or google or whatever fills you with joy, do it.

deb.

Work in Progress: Her shape

"her shape" 30x30"
copyright debbie clarke gloucester ma 2008
m/m: oil, chalk, foil, egg glue on canvas to be applied to panel.

i replied.

and i should have shown them that one.
and elizabeth said i should hang that one.

Progress Report: The Trapper John and The Dog & I drawing

This drawing is done. needs to be sealed. then the final light will be applied. stay tuned.
"Trapper John and The Dog & I" 30x32" copyright debbie clarke 2008, gloucester ma. chalk, aluminum leaf, wax, sharpie on canvas.

Ferrini Mirror progress report

ferrini is coming into relief. all of the words have died down, now all there is when i work is the landscape of his visage, the materials at hand. i have run out of gold leaf. i have run out of silver leaf. i now work with what i have left of the aluminum leaf and some indigo colors.

and this brings me to my favorite Thurber response to his editor's request for a progress report on his writing: 'well, i have drunk up all of the rum.'

"3rd Eye" mixed media on manipulated digital self portrait,

What I did today:
I mounted this 5x5" digital print of this manipulated photo onto a 5x5" panel.


I layered silver leaf, gel medium, gloss medium, and acrylic paint onto the print.
I scraped through the layers.
I added many phthalo acrylic glazes.
I scanned the image into the computer and here it is.



copyright Debbie Clarke
2008
Gloucester MA

$175