Clarke, Mark

Mark Clarke has worked and exhibited as a professional artist for over 45 years. He has shown widely in the northwest and is extensively represented in numerous corporate, public and private collections. Clarke is well known for his atmospheric landscapes, strong figurative pieces, and abstract, experimental collages and paintings. His kindness, modesty and gentle-nature is reflected in his unassuming yet powerful artwork. He is admired by colleagues and collectors as one of Oregon’s premier painters. In addition, he worked at The University of Oregon’s Museum of Art until 1995, as Chief Museum Exhibitions Preparator and Museum Technician. He has taught classes in painting, watercolor, drawing and collage for The University of Oregon, Portland State University, Lane Community College, and M.I.Kerns Art Center in Eugene. Clarke received his B.S. in 1959 and his M.F.A (with Honors) in 1965, from The University of Oregon.

Mark begins many of his landscapes out of doors. Back in the studio, he may work on them a bit, but he sets them aside to give them time to “soften”. This gives him an opportunity to come back to the image with a fresh vision and make the painting less a realistic rendering and more “its own special thing,” a more personal expression. Mark sums up his approach to painting in the following way: “A lot of painting is about putting paint on canvas, and then correcting what you’ve done to get what you think you want to get. And then there are surprises along the way.”

Distant Field Figure in Window Green Hill Landscape Landscape at Dusk Man Pond Memory Rain Cloud Over Landscape