Michael G Clark PAI RSW RGI A LUST FOR LIFE
May - June 2023
NORTH COTSWOLDS
Front Cover: Waiter, Paris, oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches, £2,650
MICHAEL G CLARK pai rsw rgi
A LUST FOR LIFE
40 New Paintings by the distinguished Scottish Artist
Paintings of France, Italy & Scotland
Saturday, May 20th, 11.00am – 4.30pm · Sunday, May 21st, 11.00am – 3.00pm
The exhibition continues through to June 10th
Wednesday to Friday 10.30am - 4.30pm & Saturday 11.00am - 3.00pm
Works may be purchased on receipt of this brochure
Additional works my be viewed online www.johndaviesgallery.com
Your Invitation for the Opening Weekend and to meet the Artist (on Saturday only)
Old
Fosseway
Moreton-in-Marsh
Gloucestershire
E:
The
Dairy Plant ·
Business Park ·
·
· GL56 9NQ T: 01608 652255 ·
gallery@johndaviesgallery.com · www.johndaviesgallery.com
NORTH COTSWOLDS
INTRODUCTION – MICHAEL G CLARK PAI RSW RGI ( b. 1959)
I am delighted to be able to write that Michael Clark has just been elected a member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. Founded in 1861, this has been a highly regarded organisation where the bar is high and many of the finest artists of their day from Scotland, England, Ireland, America, and the Continent have exhibited.
Born in Ayr, Michael studied at Edinburgh College of Art under Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston, and Robin Philipson. Here he specialized in illustration, graphics, and photography, and on graduation in 1983 his love of film led him to work with BBC Scotland in Glasgow. A move to London came in 1989 and having developed an individual style in painting, initially in watercolour, his first one-man show came with Sally Hunter Fine Art in Knightsbridge in 1996. He returned to Scotland settling in Ayrshire in 1999.
Since that time, he has developed and refined a highly individual style, now mainly in oil, depicting his observations of French street life in particular, as well as landscapes at home and abroad. In addition, Michael had become a sophisticated flower painter. His palette is subtle and distinctive, his sense of composition and choice of subject highly original and engaging. I am delighted to be staging this second solo show with us.
John Davies May 2023
A COLLECTION FOR 2023
I paint what I love, a love of life. That might be a couple embracing in Paris, a conversation at a café table, or observing a waiter bal-ancing a tray with the sparkling anticipation of a meal shared with friends. If there is a narrative taking place in my paintings, I invite the viewer to share in the story.
My landscapes are often taken from the view from my Ayrshire studio which looks across the River Doon towards the Carrick Hills. This is a constantly changing scene, from the stark beauty of winter to the blossoming new growth of spring.
Sometimes the memory of something seen is enough to inspire a painting. Even in a quiet Scottish winter I can escape to the warmth of a lively French market in summer. Scribbled notes and images snatched on a phone are the starting points. The real work begins in my studio.
Michael G Clark April 2023
2
Summer Fields, Cotswolds Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches
3
£3,650
4
Walking the Dog, Ayrshire Oil on gesso panel, 12 x 12 inches £1,850
A Sunday Beach Walk, Ayrshire Oil on gesso panel, 12 x 12 inches £1,850
5
The Dog Walkers, Wales Oil on linen, 22 x 24 inches £3,350
6
Kitchen Table Flowers Oil on linen, 12 x 12 inches £1,850
The Red Jug Oil on linen, 12 x 12 inches £1,850
Garden Flowers in a Favourite Jug Oil on linen, 12 x 12 inches £1,850
A Celebration of Summer Flowers Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches
7
£2,650
8
The Mustard Jar Oil on linen, 12 x 10 inches £1,600
Flowers from our Garden Oil on linen, 12 x 10 inches £1,600
Summer Breeze (Garden Flowers) Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches
9
£3,650
10
Bike, Padova Oil on linen, 12 x 16 inches
£1,950
Café Society, Agen, Southwest France Oil on linen, 12 x 10 inches
£1,600
11
Paris, February Oil on linen, 16 x 12 inches
£1,950
Paris, Just a Working Day Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches
£2,650
12
Kissing Couple Oil on linen, 16 x 12 inches
£1,950
Paris, February Oil on linen, 12 x 10 inches
£1,600
£2,650
Saturday in Lucca Watercolour, 19 x 26 inches
13
14
Sunday Morning Market, Boé, near Puymirol Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches
£2,650
15
Conversations at a French Market, Provence Oil on linen, 30 x 40 inches
£5,750
Sometimes the Rain is Beautiful in Paris Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches £2,650
16
Waiter, Paris Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches £2,650
Table Talk, Valence Oil on linen, 24 x 30 inches £3,950
17
Bordeaux Old Town Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches £2,650
18
Paris, Early Morning near the Seine Oil on linen, 16 x 12 inches
£1,950
Rainy Day in Paris Oil on linen, 16 x 12 inches
£1,950
Boutique, Paris Oil on linen, 22 x 24 inches
19
£3,350
20
The Enduring Appeal of the Little Black Dress Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches £2,650
LBD Oil on linen, 12 x 10 inches £1,600
21
Dress Sense Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches
£2,650
Wedding Dress Oil on linen, 12 x 12 inches
£1,850
22
Summer, the Salon at 40 Rue Royale Oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches
£5,250
£3,350
23
An Autumn Lunch awaits at L’Horloge, Auvillar Oil on linen, 24 x 30 inches £3,950
Farmhouse and Sunflowers, near Montjoi, France Oil on linen, 22 x 24 inches
24
A View from my Studio in Winter Oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches £5,250
25
Spring Arrives in our Garden Oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches
£5,250
26
Mull Oil on linen, 24 x 30 inches
£3,950
27
Our Garden in Winter Oil on linen, 59 x 71 inches
£14,000
AN APPRECIATION FROM PROFESSOR ALAN RIACH UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Michael Clark’s paintings are a celebration of colour, light and form, and more than that: they are a reason for uplift, a tender engagement with the unobtrusive but totally substantial pleasures of the everyday things life brings to us.
The pleasure of looking at Michael Clark’s paintings might seem to have everything to do with surfaces and textures, yet they bring to us a rare quality of patient attentiveness.
Perhaps the places will be familiar: the Tuileries Gardens, the street markets of French towns, the evocation of flavours, scents and textures. Yet there is nothing merely sensationalist here. There is, rather, a kind of active commemoration of the moments of enjoyment, light falling on a tabletop; a wall or a rooftop; his paintings deliver something onto the canvas more than mere depiction.
28
A Church at Dowanhill, Glasgow Oil on linen, 20 x 22 inches £3,250
MICHAEL G CLARK pai rsw rgi
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh, ‘A Lust for Life’
2022 Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh, Santé
2022 Lemond Gallery, Glasgow, ‘Bliss’
2021 Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol, ‘Mellow’
2020 Lemond Gallery, Glasgow, ‘Les Pensees d’un artiste’
2020 Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh, ‘Quedubon’
2019 Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol, ‘Of mists and mellow fruitfulness’
2019 Thompson’s Marylebone, London ‘With love’,
2018 Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh, ‘Amour Amore’
2018 John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh, ‘Those Moments of Leisure’
2017 Thompson’s Marylebone, London, ‘A Sense of Place’
2016 Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh, ‘A Tale of 2 Cities’
2015 Thompson’s Marylebone, London, ‘Beaucoup d’Amour’
2015 Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh, ‘Café Society’
2015 Lemond Gallery, Glasgow, ‘Collection’
2014 Lime Tree Gallery, Long Melford, Suffolk, ‘A Painter’s Palette’
2014 Lemond Gallery, Glasgow, ‘Joie de Vivre’
2013 Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow
2013 Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh, ‘Menage’
2012 Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh, ‘Quintessentially French’
2011 Bath Contemporary, ‘L’Alliance’
2011 Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol
2011 Thompson’s Marylebone, London, ‘Entente Cordiale’
2010 RGI Kelly Gallery, Glasgow, ‘A Very French Affair’
2009 Bianco Nero Gallery, Stokesley
2002 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
1998 Sally Hunter Fine Art, London
1996 Sally Hunter Fine Art, London
Diplomas
2023 RGI Diploma from The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
2014 RSW Diploma from The Royal Society of Painters of Watercolours
2012 PAI Diploma of Artist Membership from the Paisley Art Institute
Awards
2019 Eat and Drink Italy Purchase Award at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Exhibition
2017 Ruthven Gallery Award at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Exhibition
2015 Artist Surfaces Award at the Paisley Art Institute Annual Exhibition
2011 The Jamieson Award at The Scottish Drawing Competition
2010 Winsor and Newton Award at The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Exhibition
2008/7 The Wren Gallery Award for Still Life Painting at the Paisley Art Institute Annual Exhibition
2007 Art Hire Prize, Scottish Drawing Competition hosted by Paisley Art Institute
2007 Selected for Sunday Times/Singer Friedlander Watercolour Prize
2005 Art Hire Prize, at The Paisley Art Institute Annual Exhibition
2003 Runner up 2003 Aspect (Kennox) Painting Prize
Collections
Royal Bank of Scotland, The Maclaurin Trust Collection, First State Investments, Heckfield Place Hotel, London
The Old Dairy Plant · Fosseway Business Park · Moreton-in-Marsh · Gloucestershire · GL56 9NQ T: 01608 652255 E: gallery@johndaviesgallery.com www.johndaviesgallery.com A Love Affair with Venice Oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches £2,650 NORTH COTSWOLDS
