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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.
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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.”
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