ABOUT CLIVE

Clive was born in Auckland New Zealand, and arrived in Melbourne in 1975 to study Interior Design and Architecture at RMIT. He completed the degree in Architecture and set up a practice on the Mornington Peninsula in 1989. He retired from his practice at the end of June 2020 and is now concentrating on his art practice again. Having studied art throughout his school years, his interest was increased with further classes in watercolour, graphics and life drawing at RMIT.Through the late 1980's, he received six First Prize awards from St Bedes Art Show ('85), Shepparton Art Show ('87), Bendigo Art Show ('89), Keilor Art Show ('89), Victorian Artists Society (89'), and Flinders Art Show (89).He is a former member of the Victorian Artists Society, where in 1988/89 he studied oil painting under Maxwell Wilks. The oil painting classes allowed a change from watercolour to oils, which has continued to this time. During the 1980's and 1990's, he exhibited watercolours and later oil paintings through Manyung Gallery in Mt Eliza, Elgin Gallery in Carlton, Noels Gallery in Main Ridge, Without Pier Gallery in Sandringham, Falkner Gallery in Castlemaine, and others. Throughout this period, his architecture practice absorbed his time and mostly precluded further showing of works through Galleries, but he continued showing oil painting works through selected art shows.In the last five years, Clive has had exhibitions through Vida Gallery Whittlesea; Lon Resort Point Lonsdale, Lander-Sea Dromana, and Brunswick Street Gallery, Brunswick.His landscapes paintings depict local scenes on the Mornington Peninsula, and scenes from travels around Australia which he finds interesting. Some works are recalls of scenes remembered to which changes in light and colour are used to depict a particular time of day.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The ability to capture a feeling or express and emotion in paint has intrigued me from my early years. It seemed to me that the ability to capture something of interest in a way that is different and fulfilling was a gift worth pursuing.To some people this ability to produce art work comes easily, while to others it is difficult to produce works that are satisfying. But producing good art is just like everything else in life, it requires learned skills, time and effort, and most of all, the willingness to not give up when it does not work. And it now seems to me that it is this pursuit to achieve a result which is better than the previous work which drives an artist on.It would be easy to describe my work as landscape painting in the traditional technique, however I believe recent works show a style where attention to colour and luminosity as allowed works to show an impressionism beyond the traditional treatment of a scene.My painting materials are oil on canvas, permanently glue fixed to a backing board. I also prefer to surround may paintings with a white mount board as a window to look through ( a result of my earlier watercolour painting days), with a subtle frame to complete the whole work. I prefer to build up layers of oil paint, allowing the layers to show through, which provides a luminous work of greater depth. I believe this impressionistic approach enhances colour and elevates interest in the work. My paintings set out to witness views which are sometimes well known, but which conjure an emotion to the viewer of having been there, or perhaps thinking of having been there. They are beyond a statement of record, but show an emotional attachment, a drama, and a sense pf place, achieved through depth of colour.

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