a drawing

a mixed media drawing with oil and leaf on canvas. 24x18".

copyright debbie clarke

gloucester ma 2010

this panel was started march 2009, completed today.  

life cam test

last sunday morning

last sunday morning eb, her boy josh and their penny visited.  eb has established a habit of documenting her sunday mornings. this last sunday morning included me.  our sunday mornings together always feel like home.

 

we both share a history of documenting our lives.  above is the condensed version of my babel tower. the electronic years come later.  i retired the spiral bounds several years ago to electronic documentation, art documentation, sketch books, etc.  i might cast these in shellac.  and i might not.  i might burn them page by page, and maybe not.  the tower is ripe with the transfer of sharpie markers.  that's one way to cover one's tracks, especially if one writes double sided journal entries.  heheheheh.  paperdolls anyone?

This is my daughter's blog.

ae-creative.blogspot.com/

This is my daughter Elizabeth's new blog.  I really like the design of it.  there are a few good pics of yours truly from last sunday morning.  what a girl.  and she can write! 

sounds of gloucester 3

wow i walk fast.
'sounds of gloucester 3'
copyright deb clarke
gloucester ma 2010

sounds of gloucester 2

walk to work
"sounds of gloucester 2"
copyright deb clarke
gloucester ma 2010

sounds of gloucester

"A Documented Life"
deb clarke, gloucester ma
copyright 2010

where's zat? (to borrow a phrase from sharon and gmg)

hint:  my next sunday morning painting class (8am) weather permitting will be held near this location.

my lucky fortune

Steve Linsky

I dont have a' Thousand Words'

Straight out of the camera.  I was so focused on the sign, I didn't see him.  I hope he doesn't mind, I think this is a terrific pic of a working man on a hot summer day.

Wedding House: SOLD!

today is the last day of Gloucester's Sidewalk Bazaar.  i have been showing some of my paintings on the sidewalk in front of Bananas.  yesterday i sold 2 paintings, the one above and its companion The Wedding Reel.  these two works were part of the series of paintings that i did for the Peabody Historical Society's "historic interpretation" show last year.  the paintings are the most non-traditional works i offered up for sale, the others are oils of the beacon marine basin, magnolia harbor, a few still life.  i overheard someone describing this painting and its companion as 'weird'.  heh.  what do you know, these two 'weird' works are the ones that sold.

note to self:  don't listen to the naysayers.  always trust my gut.

and i sold a photograph the day before!  now i can fix my truck.

best,
deb.

True North

Last night our harbor was socked in the fog which glowed pink, green, yellow.  Beyond, above the fog bank the sky.  While I scanned the sky to orient true north an old conversation with my teacher Andy ran through my head.  figure drawing class, Andy bent over my shoulder, talking about visual drives, pushing my eye, here, here, here.  frustration in my eye, my hand, my body, my brain "What am I looking for?" Andy simply said "anything."

and just then, last night, as Andy's 'anything' faded i saw the satellite directly above my upturned head.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1788-1867

Ingres is part of my foundation and "Artists on Art" is studio companion of 30+ years.

"If I were asked to put up a sign over my door I should inscribe it:  School for Drawing, and I am sure that I should bring forth painters."

My art school was "Debbie Clarke's School for Drawing" following Ingres advice.  The interesting thing is that some painters were drawn forth.  BUT most of my students ended up being sculptors, designers, video/performance artists, ephemerists, collagists, etc.  hmmm.  I should have just named it Debbie Clarke's school for art.  because that is what I drew forth:  artists.  and when my students would tell me that they were there to become artists, I always told them that it was beyond my ability to create artists or teach them how to make 'art'.  all i could do was to teach them how to see as an artist, how to think as an artist, how to use materials.  the foundation was always drawing.

now, I am not a sculptor; but, i learned to see space through the eyes of a sculptor.  Andy MacMillan.  He gave me "B's".  His classes always challenged me to 'look', 'look', 'look'.  and for every 'look' there was always another way of 'looking' at the space, the figure, the picture plane completely contrary to the first look.  I would get confused.  Finally I confessed in frustration "What am I looking for?"  and Andy simply said "Anything."  and he held my gaze for 30 seconds and moved on.  he was one of my best teachers.  when I teach figure drawing, I lean into Andy's guiding words.

heh...and I thought I didn't get it or him.  He was right and i am so blessed to have had him for a teacher.  his teaching was as hard and durable as the granite this island is built upon.

By-the-way Andy studied with George Demetrios, right here in Folly Cove.  I had to go to Boston to The Art Institute of Boston to meet Demetrios' approach to seeing through Andy's classes.

sleep well Andy.  there are many deft eyes and hands as a result of your constancy.

best,

deb.

flea bites

100_3685
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

a quick drawing of some pooches recovering from a flea attack. scratch, scratch, scratch.

anything i can draw for you? twenty five bucks a shot, including postage to mail it to you. continental us only.

best.
deb

Art for Sale: Beacon Marine

Beacon Marine viewed from Rocky Neck.  This is an oil painting of the view from our old apartment on Rocky Neck.  The apartment was smaller than this one, but i sure got a lot of painting done in that space.  My struggle was to get the color, activate the picture plane and make the 'box' of the building.  The box is successful.  It was a real struggle to understand the activity below the doc and putting the boats on the plane of the water.  The painting is oil on canvas 24x30".  $375.  copyright Clarke 2007 

(wow, seems like just yesterday)

best,

deb

inquiries about this painting and others always welcomed.

Cobbled Cove, Magnolia MA

100_3691
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

This is the only painting I have ever done of waves on the shore. Something about this dark rock with the water washing over it stayed in my retinal memory, so I painted the memory as soon as I got back to my studio.

The most frequent comment about this painting is that it is too fast. i guess most people (and at one time i thought this too) think you have to labor over an oil painting for it to be valid.

This is not true. Everything changes. in a blink the wave comes in, in a blink it is gone. just like life, we are but a twinkling. I like the speed of my brushwork, the slip of the paint, that slight oily green in the trough of the next wave. just the way it was in that moment.

maybe i will do the ocean again, maybe not. depends on the retinal impact and memory.

so what do you think, should i have labored longer? this painting happened in a timeless flash.

best,
deb.

oh, this is for sale: $275.

working man cripple cove

100_3674
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

saw a great interview with Gloucester artist Paul Ciamiataro on goodmorninggloucester this morning. Paul pointed out that a lot of cape ann paintings focus on the boats, the buildings, the landscape and if there are any peeps in the paintings, they are very small. Paul's focus is on the people that provide the backbreaking labor to bring the sea's abundance to shore.

i just realized that all of my cove drawings are of the shapes of the landscape sans people, except this one where i caught someone getting something stowed in the storage bin of his truck at Capt Joe's.

my truck

testing out flickr.

Awesome!  eb purchased an account for me, but i haven't used it very much.  i think i like this.

best,
deb

Sunday Morning Perkins Street 2010

This is the drawing from last Sunday morning's drawing class.  We held class on a third floor deck with a view that swept over Our Lady of Good Voyage toward the western shore.  I will start paintings from some of these sharpie drawings.  there are three tiny shapes in the drawing that are on the ground plane.  these spaces, one near two far interest me very much.  i'm not sure how i will handle the large roof shapes on the left and right, but that is one of the great things about drawing, i can try the ideas out before committing to paint, or not.  I love all of these complicated views with lots of activity.  do you have a crazy landscape that you would like me to draw for you?  

White Wind needs to visit my friend Steve Linsky

Steve owns Linsky's Service Station,  He is my service man when it comes to keeping my vehicles and humor in tip-top shape. 

I used to drive foreign cars (subaru, volvo, bmw), but after my husband died it proved too costly to keep two cars running.  the volvo died first, then the bmw (the subaru got totalled years ago).  Steve advised me to get an American car (easier on the wallet).  My brother-in-law gave me his dodge dakota and told me to drive it  into the ground.  When I took the truck to Steve for its second oil change he said 'take care of your truck'.  it needed fluids, air, and grease on the axils.  The truck's muffler started talking just prior to my last oil change. so Steve also checked the muffler.  "Can i still drive it?" i asked. "Yes, but the catalytic converter needs to be replaced...ain't a pretty site, rusted out on both ends."  "Will it fall off?" "Maybe, and you risk losing your muffler if it does."  Within a week the sound became a full bore gale that turned every head i passed.  rattled home from the market about 5 weeks ago, turned the wind off and have left her parked.  until she can visit Steve.  

I'm so afraid something will fall off when I drive the truck to Steve, that I am going to have someone follow me...just-in-case I really screw up, drop the exhaust system and create general mayhem with spewed parts from here to maplewood ave.

or maybe i should just pay the thirty bucks and have her towed.

Turns out there is a contest on the Sharpie site!

Vote for me in this contest!

Submit entry

Contest details

but, you can't vote for me. i'm not a college student, unless there is another contest that i am unaware of. have decided it is a poorly designed site. especially when it comes to contests, and if it is not a contest, i should not have vote for me promotional buttons under my images.

whatever.

Magnolia MA

This painting was a demonstration for a painting class I held at the Magnolia landing a few summers ago. It is oil on canvas, 32x40".  I turned the canvas over last night and scrawled on the back is my copyright and next to that $850.  I like numbers that add up to 13 and reduce to 4.   

I will be posting work that is available for purchase. what would you like to see?  oils? landscapes? figures? mixed media?  reverse glass?  

my work on the sharpie gallery

debclarke glosta on the Sharpie Gallery. if this is a contest, what do we win?

i like the way the page looks when one looks at the view of all of my images.  i will put more images up.  i just can't figure out what the contest is.  and what does one win.  all i've noticed is that i give away a lot of rights, and sharpie gets all the bennies without having to give me credit.  okay, i understand this.  but, what is the contest?  and what is the prize?  can anyone tell me?  do you even bother to click through to the linked site?  if so, why?

best,
deb.

lookin' for some contact here.  hello? hello? hellooooooooooooooooutthere................

goodmorning gloucester

Deb Clarke represents!

the link above points to a post about me by my friend Paul, the Cape Ann Painter whose website is http://www.capeannpainter.blogspot.com.  Paul is the instigator of my regular postings to goodmorninggloucester.

check out Paul's blog and goodmorninggloucester for directions to finding Paul's "Art Rocks".  He regularly draws (with a Sharpie! marker) on the cobbled rocks of Cape Ann and leaves them for folk to find, along with info to contact him should they be found.  I've encouraged him to upload his pics of his sharpie art to the sharpie showcase that i am represented in.

best,
deb.

ps:  I'm still working on the portrait of Paul and I found out he lost his favorite hat.  I'm encouraging him to allow me to paint a fish on his new cap.  To illustrate the idea, i used the unfinished verre eglomise portrait to demonstrate an it.  Paul likes the fish on the cap (maybe not the one he will get to replace his lost cap) but he likes it in the painting, so i will incorporate the fish into the back panel of his portrait.

One of my drawings of Captain Joe's!

My drawing of Captain Joe's!

awesome.  it is one of my favorite mixed media drawings.  visit the site.  register, upload or vote. whatever.  this is just AWESOME!

Sunday Morning Cripple Cove view

This morning we held our painting class in my backyard.  we reviewed some work, then the students painted. i drew with my new sharpies.  this is the view toward the State Fish Pier with the towers of Our Lady of Good Vogaye on the upper right and the Marchant Street "Tower House" on the upper left.  I have since added aluminum leaf to the drawing to help define some of the shapes.  will post follow-up.  gorgeous day here on the cove, on shore breeze and the air is dry!  YES!

later,

deb.

Not Art

the evidence of failure.  and potential.

Artist on Art

Debbie Clarke on Debbie Clarke

the wip: moving waterfall with water gilded silver on the front surface.

Artist on Slideshow

hello, i'm lost in my computer slideshow of boats at the dock.

it continues to change.

very good.

work in progress: "Waldorf" new wharf pottery, england

fresh Plaster of Paris with the Green Family shards. 

it is a messy business that i do.

close-up of the shards. surprise, surprise, they stand!

and here's the thematic line-up.
the plaster is mixed with acrylic gesso.
 so, it should be a bit sturdy.
  will coat with gelatin or egg glue.  maybe egg tempera? 

art/not art?  these shards were dug up in the Green family yard.  obviously broken dishes, tossed a bit too far from the water to become beach glass (blue and white pottery shards 'willowware' were my favorite pickings from Pavilion Beach).
is this 'something we keep'?

best,

deb.

feetish

an old demo. i like this sharpie drawing on canvas. has anyone seen the new sharpie ads on tv? i'm sure my use of sharpies has made the art world aware of their great uses. i think they should use some of my work in their ads. put in a word for me OKAY. it's Sanford Sharpie. and i am deb clarke of glosta ma.

water gild in glass

and this is the fresh, set silver leaf on the front of the lighted waterfall picture.  i made a video of the process, but other than the good laugh, way too garbled to publish.  the mirror has set up, 2 days drying.  will show progress, need to burnish, carve the silver, maybe add more leaf.

1997 income projections

times have changed dramatically in these 13 years.  i have no major studio expenses now, and have limited teaching time.  i was teaching a lot, producing a lot and had commissions.  i made a very small profit last year, this year?  i want to get rid of my inventory.  need a serious studio/sidewalk sale.  will see.

best,

deb.

There's a good laugh in here!

the audio has a lot of garble. i'm blabbing and there's lots of background sound. if you can, wait for the laugh, it is priceless.

best,
deb

Art Not Art

A few years ago I found a dozen of these handblown glass panels at the building center.  i incorporated them into wax/gild wire creations.  the heat of this summer has melted the wax and most of the cold leaf is now buried in the wax.  i like playing around with the idea of what is art, is it the making of something intentional?  my intent here was to show off the beauty of the materials.  

it's summertime, so here's a pic of my garden, which is coming in later than other gardens around here.  must be the shade from the oak.

It's summer time, so i'm doing my summertime thing

It's summertime and I'm not doing a lot of painting.  hot, humid, is understated.  this is turning into a summer of old friends.  following is a pic of me and my 8th grade girlfriends at the Madfish Grill on Rocky Neck last Sunday.  5 of us are within a 50 mile radius of Essex, one returns regularly from Alaska for a Cape Ann summer.  we haven't all been together for a long time, and we picked up just as then, as friends.

following is my dearest friend Laurie.  she is a bluegrass singer/musician/gardener extraordinaire.  we have been close friends since our 17th year.  love this woman. love her family.  if you want to buy her music, she is on cd baby.  Laurie Keefe.  her bluegrass band is "Old Cold Tater".  when i first heard music in her house, i knew i always had to have music in my life, and musicians in my home.  and that is the way it is.  

and following is the Mill River, with a turning tide.  Laurie swam, I waded, we talked.  and wished the guy in the kayak would have shut up.

my posts will be sporadic.  i am researching family history, trying to decide whether to write it or paint/sculpt it.  and i'm researching portland cement applications.  i have a bunch of 19th/18th century porcelain and glass bottles.  and i want to cast some leaves. 

enjoy your summer.  summer on cape ann is a jewel, i must enjoy it.  and I will go to the Beauport Museum this summer!  Do you know I have never been there.

oh, one more thing, i'm still working at bananas, following is my eb keeping me in line on a very busy hot, humid, understated Fiesta Friday.  Viva San Pietro!

best,

deb

Art Not Art

the last of the slideshow with transposed colors.  this one is my favorite.

Art Not Art

and another from the slideshow.  this one is a crop of another angle.

Art Not Art

another blip in the slideshow with an interesting transposition of color. these images are more interesting to me than the actual painting. maybe i will use these ideas for new work, maybe not.

Art Not Art

This is a pic of a painting of capt joes, that is on my screen saver slide show. this image exists no where except on my computer, and the original pic has reverse values.   from obtuse angles, i see something else. this image above,  that is a resident file on my harddrive, shared here.  i have been tempted to paint it; but, why?  the image pleases me.  what happens when something is closely observed?  it changes.  

"Take an object, do something to it, do something else to it."  Jasper Johns

Art Not Art

a digital pic of my screen saver, which is a slideshow of my digital pics.  the original image refers to capt joe's.  goodmorninggloucester!

Art Not Art

This is a photo of my screen saver.  My screen saver is a slideshow of my digital photographs.  This photo that you see on my screen saver exists no where, except as a resident file in my computer, and now it is shared here.  The original photo is of the steps to my yard with the gardens cool in green.  The colors that are on the computer screen, appear as other colors when the screen is viewed from an obtuse angle.  

Art, not Art?

i use plastic packaging as a palette.  i rarely throw them away.  above is the inside, below is the outside.

it self hangs.   keep it, throw it away? can it go in the recycling bin?

if their mothers only knew, maybe they do

if their mothers only knew, maybe they do
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

this is the wip: formerly known as the ones who would steal. the figures are all glosta gals that i have known over the years. i'm working from my imagination and have scratched off most of the burnt sienna drawing. i'm keeping this in a drawing state for as long as i can. my internal landmarks are isabel bishop's standing figures, giacometti and edwin dickensen. still working out the space.
the space is bananas vintage store on main street in gloucester ma.

best,
deb