C D Clarke

C.D. Clarke travels the world hunting, fishing, and painting.  He carries his art supplies on his back, so that he can paint on location.  Born and raised in Rochester, NY, C.D. received his BFA in painting and illustration from Syracuse University in 1981.

Never far from the outdoors, C.D.'s lifelong interest in the subject (particularly angling and hunting) has made it a substantial portion of his work.  Boats, leaky waders, fishing rods, wet wool, bird dogs, decoys, and shotguns are integral parts of C.D.’s life.  He paints them with a sportsman’s understanding, making his work essential to the true sportsman’s art collection.

C.D. prefers to work from life whenever possible, painting in the field, en plein air.  Much of his work is created on location, often times standing knee-deep in a salmon river or on a bonefish flat, or bobbing along in a skiff.  His immersion in the subject results in a spontaneous composition.

In a very personal way, C.D.'s method of painting captures the light, color, and, most importantly, the feeling of landscapes, such as sparkling bonefish flats, misty Scottish salmon rivers, raw, windy marshes, icy Chilean Andes, warm, sunny Argentinean pampas, and other sporting destinations.  Then, working from watercolor sketches and photographs of the sportsmen and their equipment, C.D. accurately depicts the sporting scene in oil paintings and larger watercolors completed in the studio under more controlled conditions.  The boats, planes, dogs, rods, and guns, as well as the anglers and hunters themselves, in addition to the landscape that they inhabit, are all true to life.