Feast! "Feed the People and the People will follow" the Bollenberg

Hello, dear followers.  I am well.  I have been busy.  lots of living, daughter getting married, a trip to France, celebrations of all sorts with family and friends.  I've continued to work at Bananas selling the vintage and gently used goods, as well as, continuing my daily art practice.

I'll be showing some work from an on-going series "Family Heirlooms" started in 1999 and redacted in 2013; within a broader body of work i refer to as apres Versailles.

I'm working on a Hall of Mirrors (about 80 glass and mirror drawings) selections from this project will be showing at The Flatrocks Gallery during the next several months, and through the first of few months of the New Year.

Most of my marketing and social media time has been spent on Facebook. It has been the easiest way for me to communicate and share what i am doing.   if you wish to connect and follow my public posts on facebook, please look me up.

i'm Debbie Clarke

in

Gloucester MA.

I will make an attempt to keep this blog up.  sometimes i find this site clunky.  

 thank you and best to my art buddy John Kelly for giving me a nudge.  folk do read this blog.  i  have another post about that.  later.  will try for once a week updates.  Sunday and Mondays are good for that.

best, and thank you for following.  if you're in Gloucester, please stop by to see Feast and enjoy a real look at my work.  I think it is beautiful.  

best,

deb.

 

this drawing pleases me.  i should track it down.  mixed media with foil on canvas.

it's snowing today.  these Sarto sandals had a lot of fun in the sun.

best,

stay snug.

will be on a posting binge today.

lots of stuff to share!

deb.

big brush, 20 minutes

my friend Kay stopped by yesterday afternoon for a few minutes.  i asked her to sit while i set up a palette.  4 colors:  cad yellow medium, phtalo blue cobalt hue, cad red medium and alizarin (wanted grumbacher red, but i'm out; hence the 2 reds) and white.  twenty minutes a 2 inch brush and this is the result.  i've already started rubbing some of the profiles so that i can work on it some more.  

i have not set up a full palette in a long time, as a lot of the work during the past year or so  required small batches of color, mixed each time i started to work.  it felt good to move my eyes and arms as Kay kept moving around too (she is very animated.).   

the challenge for me is to keep the paint 'fresh' as  the work develops.  

can't remember the last time i worked from a model.  should do this more often, just to keep the motor

skills sharp.  did not reach a 'calgon take me away' moment, but had a blast thinking about nothing except what color is this, what direction is that, how does this relate to that,  and kiss (keep it simple stupid).

best,

deb.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/fatboy-cichlid-debbie-clarke.html

We called him "Fat Boy"

We had a 30 gallon community aquarium for quite a few years where this rare blue faced cichlid  grew to 10 inches or so by eating most of the other fish in the tank.  He consumed tetras, angel fish, silver dollars, guppies, zebras...he left the pleco alone...he ate the 5 inch crayfish too!  The painting of the cichlid known as "Fatboy" to us was completed in 1995, just before I turned my full time attention to glass commissions.  The media:  oil on portrait linen with metal leaf and irridescent mylar.  pentimento from the still life of pears and florals and dishes is evident, along with some crackling issues from scrapedowns.  the crackled layer is very thin, the underpaint is firmly attached to the substrate and in good condition.  the linen came from an endroll, unfortunately there is regular bleed through to the back of the linen.  the bleed is limited to the tack holes where it was attached to the loom.  

Fatboy was on display at The Bookstore of Gloucester for quite a few years.  He is missed; but their walls are full.  Janice has asked for cards.  my good friend K'esty has provided me with the photo.  I will upload it to my FineArtsAmerica site and make it available for sale as cards.

link later 

and

best to you

deb.

New Studio!

A room with a door and a few work walls.  after i remove some furniture, bedding, etc.  It will double as a guest room as needed.  I've been so hungry for space that I cannot wait for full clean up to start working.  I always open new work space with a self portrait.  Just  mixed up some egg paint.  off  to draw.

Happy New Year with beauty and bounty in all that you do.

best,

deb.

Art Blab

Last February we had an engagement party for my daughter Elizabeth and her Joshua.  Towards the end of the evening Elizabeth secretly recorded one of our conversations.  here's a short snippet.  we had a good laugh.

Kitchen Studio Tour

it starts in the dark.  a tour of my very messy work space.  it took 24 hours to
upload 8 minutes.   i really need to learn to hold the camera still.
best,
deb.

Portfolio Review: Drawings, Sue Anne

Drawing of Sue Anne

18x24"

oil/turp on Strathmore archival paer

circa 2000 

copyright clarke gloucester ma

Sue Anne was my business partner when we had the Willis and Clarke Gallery in Magnolia (home of The Debbie Clarke School for Drawing).   She also modeled for the drawing classes that I offered.  This drawing is of Sue Anne in the great red coat, and proved to be a good study for a reverse glass painting that sold right away, so i did several more, and sold them too.  maybe i should do another.  more great drawings of Sue Anne coming up.

best,

deb.

Portfolio Review: Drawings of Brenda

Drawings of Brenda

18x24"

oil/turp on Strathmore archival paper

circa 2000

copyright clarke gloucester ma

more drawings from when I taught.  Brenda was my studio assistant and model.  We worked well together.

best,

deb.

Portfolio Review: Judy

Drawings of Judy circa 2000

18x24"

oil/turp on Strathmore archival

copyright clarke gloucester ma

These sketches were done during one of the drawing classes I offered through The Debbie Clarke School for Drawing, which I ran between 1995 and 2006. We all drew from the model, here the model is my good friend Judy.  She was a great model with theatrical inclinations.  Have always loved these drawings, the mother lode of drawings is in Judy's extensive collection of Debbie Clarke art.

enjoy,

and best always,

deb.

Portfolio Review: Drawings

 after Gaston Lachaise

conte crayon on museum board, 8x10" or so

copyright clarke circa 1984

when Elizabeth was wee and we lived in Rockport MA

recently sold one, gave the other away, or did i sell both or give both away?  either way, these drawings are no longer in my possession.  i always have problems with feet, hand, head sizes, quite evident here.  these were studies for a very large foil cut out that i sent to a framer for lamination, then never retrieved.  not sure why.  I was going to throw these away.  now, i'm pleased that they have new homes, and i don't have the angst of wanting to 'fix' them and i don't mean fixative.

best,

deb.

Past Perfect

"Natasha, again"

24x30"

oil with metal leaf and chalk on canvas

copyright clarke fall 2012 gloucester ma

It has taken years for my paintings to catch up to my sketchbook drawings.  This is part of the "Faces I Remember" series that I have been working on for several years.  Natasha studied art with me when she was in her tweens, and now, she is a grown woman completing her masters.  

best,

deb.

first light work in progress

darkest light, lightest light.  work in progress.

Documented

I've been saving the shells from the green eggs that show up in our eggs from a local farm.  The initial intention was to save the shells for use as pigment for egg tempera.  Have not gotten that far; but, I have documented the consumption. I haven't been painting, just picking away at work here and there.  Am so glad that I have at least documented my movements. My mother passed away on May 28th and within hours of the news found myself in the very hot, dusty basin of Phoenix.  Gone a week, home for almost 2 months and have been losing a sense of time and doing.  The gardens thrive, evidence of care and nurture. The eggs intimate the perfect vehicle for working through the silence that has entered my heart.

best,

deb.

Artist on Art: Clarke on Fitz Henry Lane and William A. Ellwell

I repaired the box.  The glass is plexi, it is pitted, scratched with mildew stains.  the box lining is warped.  the posters continue to shrink.  the bottom was coming apart, i screwed it back together.  wiped off a crust of pollen and grime.  gave it a wash of slow set gilder's oil.  gave it a speed dry with the hot sun.  laid down aluminum leaf.  burnished the leaf to an almost hard tack (t?); rubbed in non oxidizing gold dust, light sipe with a milky tacky brush.  laid down more aluminum leaf.  inscribed sharpie drawing.  i saw the silhouette of gloucester in the leaf, then signed it.  one more burnish. done.  the only audience?  a man taking a deep lumbering nap on the rise behind me.

best,

deb.

Head of the Harbor, Pollen Ttide May 26, 2012

best,

deb.

Walking in Gloucester May 26, 2012 pm: Fitz Henry Lane under Duress.

 today's revelation:  you gotta roll.

best,

deb