|
At the 2010 Gallery Plus Print Show Graham Clarke launched 'The
Quay', a limited-edition hand-coloured etching. We are privileged
and thrilled that this stunning piece has been produced in association with
us
...
“All
my life I have been attracted to little harbours, quaysides, fishing
boats and the whole business of enjoying the seaside. The North Norfolk
coast fulfils this admirably, especially Wells-next-the-sea. Trevor and
Joanna, in their fine gallery, became friends as soon as we met in my
Kentish Studio. It has now been proved that their combined talents are a
recipe for success. Having visited Wells several times over the years I
was pleased to consider it as a subject for one of my more topographic
etchings.
The result is ‘The Quay’, produced entirely by hand using methods
several hundred years old in a strictly limited edition of 300 plus 30
Artist’s Proofs. Although it will have worldwide publicity and
distribution, this is its first exposure and it will remain exclusive,
initially, to Gallery Plus.” Graham Clarke
Graham Clarke, artist,
author, illustrator and humorist, is one of Britain's most popular
and best-selling printmakers. Born in 1941, Clarke's upbringing in
war-time and post-war Britain, made him reliant on his own
imaginative resources. Responding to the comedy of everyday life, he
brings his own unique brand of humour to his interpretation of past
and present history
He was educated at Beckenham Art School and, at the Royal College of Art, he specialised in
illustration and printmaking. With encouragement from Edward Bawden,
Graham began
refining an individual aesthetic, printing traditional landscapes. Graduating in 1964, he
benefited with commissions
from Editions Alecto and London Transport Publicity Department. The publication in 1969 of his first
hand-printed "livre d'artiste", Balyn and Balan won recognition from
the most influential connoisseur of the day, Kenneth
Clark. Lord Clark also wrote enthusiastically in praise of Vision of Wat Tyler: "the
entire book is a splendid assertion that craftsmen
still exist and cannot be killed by materialism. A few idealists are
the only hope for decent values"
Graham has attracted universal admiration for his revival of beautiful,
hand-coloured prints in the tradition of Thomas Rowlandson. The
famous 'arched top' etchings came to public
attention in 1973 when the first of these, "Dance by the Light of the
Moon", was exhibited in London at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer
Show, and sold out
Examples of his work are held by Royal and public collections,
including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the
Tate Gallery and the National Library of Scotland in the United
Kingdom, as well as by Trinity College, Dublin, the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C., the New York Public Library and the
Hiroshima Peace Museum. Many more are to be found on the walls of
private homes all over the world, collected systematically by
devotees, as well as singly by ordinary art lovers who "know what
they like"
His books, Graham Clarke's "History of England",
"Grand Tour" and "Joe Carpenter Son, An English Nativity", were
published by Phaidon Press. The latter, a verse play, now having
been performed more than 300 times in churches and schools worldwide
At a ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral in July 1993, an Honorary
Degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon Graham Clarke by the
University of Kent and in August 1993 Graham was made a Chevalier de
la Confrerie du Ceps Ardechois in his favourite part of Southern
France. Graham was also named as the Fine Art Trade Guild Artist of
the Year 1993. In 1999 he was asked to become an official ambassador
for the County of Kent, a role which he pursues with much
enthusiasm. For the last twelve years his work has taken him
regularly to Japan where he has now become that country's most
popular British artist. Kodansha, Japan's largest book publisher,
issued "The World of Graham Clarke", an introduction and explanation
of eighty Clarke etchings in Japanese, a second edition has now been
printed
A major project, Graham Clarke's Millennium window, is to be
seen in his own parish church of Boughton Monchelsea, Kent, unique
in that it involves light and sound as well as stained glass. During
2000 he produced a large composite wood carving 'The Gloucester
Nativity'. Gloucester Cathedral is its home but it is designed to
travel and formed the centrepiece at Clarke's retrospective
exhibition held at The Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury in
2001
Graham Clarke is a man with an overriding sense of tradition, and of
religious, social and historical continuities. He takes pride in his
view of himself as a local man, a "Man of Kent", with a firm faith
in the peace and stability of family, home and community. As such,
life and art have always been interdependent, mutually sustaining
activities. His wife Wendy, his four children, his animals and
friends, the cottage industry he maintains in the village of
Boughton Monchelsea where he lives, his comedy band, and the
surrounding landscape, offer a microcosm of the world and its
history. The scenes he depicts represent both for him and for his
ever-widening audience, an idyll and a universal ideal
Gallery Plus
stocks an excellent range of Graham's prints, books and greetings
cards
Graham's etchings are for sale on our online shop
...
click here to visit his page
We
also stock a good selection of his cards and books in the
gallery.
www.grahamclarke.co.uk |
