I’ve always wanted to draw and paint from a very early age (facilitated to some degree by my recuperation from asthma related chest infections during the winter months until I reached my teenage years). Early artistic influences start with my late mother, Joyce, who before developing dementia in 2011, loved to paint with watercolours and oils.
My painting ‘style’ was also influenced by Charles Tunnicliffe (especially his illustrations in my collection of small ‘Ladybird’ nature books), David Gentleman, Rowland Hilder and Jack Merriot to name but a few. There are too many artists to mention here who have inspired me since – both from the past and the present.
Three of my favourite art books that I return to frequently for inspiration show the paintings of Paul Cezanne, Edward Hopper and John Singer Sergeant.
In 2022 I completed a wonderful three day painting course based at Newlyn School of Art with the superb painter of the Cornish coast, Paul Lewin, whose work I have long admired. My pictures can be seen on the coast page of this website
The limited palette of Winsor & Newton colours I have used over recent years include: French Ultramarine Blue, Winsor Blue (red shade), Cadmium Lemon, Yellow Ochre, Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Sienna for all mediums (the latter colour I am tending to swap in favour of Light Red).
I use white paint to tint opaque oil colours – often painting a layer of white paint on the area of sky, followed by a pale mixture of winsor and ultramarine blue, leaving white painted spaces for clouds (as per the pure watercolour ‘wet into wet’ technique).
Up in my small (box bedroom) studio at home, where I paint during the colder months of the year, I feel it is unhealthy for the rest of the household for me to use pungent smelling thinners to thin oil paints, I therefore mix the colours on the palette straight from the tubes without any mixing mediums or turps.
To clean oil paint from my brushes, I reuse some old white spirit thinners which I keep in the original litre size bottle, allowing the pigments etc to sink to the bottom, leaving clear liquid at the top when it settles.
I am a bit wary of using acrylic paints these days, mainly due to disposing of the brush cleaning water that contains plastic polymer micro particles which would pollute water courses when tipped down the drain (I store this in plastic milk containers and use the old seal under the cap to stop leakages when put in the bin or alternatively pour onto cat litter to dry out and then be disposed of).
I enjoy using acrylics like watercolours, you can use multiple transparent layers (especially on canvas) without causing the dullness of pigment that often occurs when trying to do the same with watercolours.
Landscape Paintings
Observational drawing is a very important part of my work, I like to do justice to the scene whether I’m in the studio or outside in the countryside, aiming to capture the unique character and beauty of the Peak District (or that of a particular tree).
It’s great to produce landscape paintings out on site when possible, the end result of working on location is a looser more spontaneous approach where I feel that I am as one with the scenery – painting almost subconsciously – but still aiming to do justice to the general topography and light effects of the scene.
I use my own original photographs as reference material for studio paintings and traditional a sketchbook to record scenes when there’s insufficient time to paint decent pictures on site. This visual information enables me to produce more detailed figurative landscape studies without being too photo realistic, concentrating on pictorial composition and the effects of sunlight on the landscape whilst trying to be fluid in my approach.
In each painting you can see multiple textural brush strokes which are small abstract paintings in their own right if seen in isolation. In 1983, my watercolour painting of Bradbourne Mill, Derbyshire, won the Munroe Trophy in the Derbyshire Open at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire. I currently exhibit a number of my landscape paintings in the Courtney Gallery, St John Street, Ashbourne.
Some time ago I started signing the front my paintings with my initials ‘NAC’ instead of ‘Neil A Clarke’ which I feel is less intrusive to the image compared to a full name (full name signed in pencil on the reverse side along with the title and picture number and date).
Reflection Paintings
I also produce studio based paintings which depict reflected images on glass surfaces – often a multiplicity of perspectives – aiming to challenge my own observational painting abilities and those of the picture viewer; creating amiguoud but also intriguing imagery. I use my own photographs as reference material – aiming to add an extra dimension to the image by transcribing them into paintings.
This subject matter is a way of moving towards producing work of a more abstract nature where I could experiment with technique and materials to create much more personalised artworks – relying less on purely figurative imagery.
In 2005, my watercolour painting of the German Pavilion, Barcelona, won 1st prize at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists ‘Open all Media’ spring exhibition.
Architectural Paintings
I’ve been producing paintings of Derbyshire towns and buildings for forty years or so now, each painting eventually becoming a closely observed record of a place in time before the inevitable alterations occur that can change the character of a street/town/city.
Coastal Paintings
The Atlantic coast of the Penwith Peninsula, west of St Ives, Cornwall, as some of the finest coastal scenery in the UK. It reminds me so much of parts of the Peak District, but with the added ingredient of the Atlantic ocean as an awe-inspiring backdrop.
All images – Copyright © Neil A Clarke. Any form of reproduction, transmission, manipulation, display or other usage without permission is strictly prohibited.
