THE OLD CASTLE AT MEERSBURG, GERMANY

Old Castle at Meersburg, Germany, 12 x 16 inch watercolor by George C. Clark    SOLD

I painted this on a sunny early May morning on a hill outside the lovely old town of Meersburg on Lake Constance in southern Germany.  Later I hiked through the vineyards overlooking the lakeshore. 

HOUSE ON THE KOHLMARKT, VIENNA

House on the Kohlmarkt, Vienna,  16 x 12 inch watercolor by George C. Clark   SOLD

The kind of small family-run accommodations Americans call bed-and-breakfasts are called pensions in Europe.  Frequently they are converted houses, villas, farms, or small apartment buildings.  However, in the larger cities they will sometimes occupy only a portion of a larger commercial building.  The pension I stayed at in Vienna was on the fourth or fifth floor of a large 19th Century building on the Graben in Vienna's altstadt.  It has been my experience that when visiting a city where driving and parking are impractical it is best to stay close to the sites you want to visit.  The extra cost is well worth the time you would waste commuting from cheaper digs in the suburbs.  An extra bonus for an artist is that sometimes you get a view worth painting.  I did this watercolor of a building on the adjacent street, the Kohlmarkt, from the window of my room.  

GRAND CANAL, VENICE

Grand Canal from Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, 12 x 9 inch watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

I painted this little watercolor sitting on the steps of the great church of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice.  The water taxi was actually tied up at the fondimenta in front of me, but I decided to portray it in motion.  Then, just as the painting was about finished, some churchmen came from behind me, got in the boat, and it took off.

NARROW-GAUGE LOCOMOTIVE, BOOTHBAY, MAINE

Narrow-gauge Locomotive, Boothbay, Maine,  20 x 30 inch oil and pencil on paper painting by George C. Clark    SOLD

This was an early entry in my "AGE OF IRON" series of railroad images.  I found this little switch engine in a railroad museum in Boothbay, Maine.  This painting was exhibited and sold before I knew I was going to be doing a railroad series.

NORTH YORKSHIRE HORSE

Draft Horse, Ripley Castle, N. Yorkshire, 6 x 6 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

When our party stopped for an ice cream and restroom break in the village of Ripley Castle, I took advantage of the time to sketch this draft horse by the doorway of an old stone barn.

CONEFLOWERS x 2

October Coneflowers, 16 x 12 inch signed print by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

October Coneflowers, 40 x 30 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

When I do an exhibition of my travel art I usually mention in the press release that "subjects range from the back roads of Europe to the artist's own Chicago back yard."  Here is one of those subjects I found in my back yard.  One October a few years ago I was struck by the graphic qualities of a browning, wilted coneflower plant drying out next to my garage.  I put a big piece of light-colored cardboard between the plant and the dark brown wall of the garage and made a 20 x 16 inch ink and watercolor painting of it, which I promptly sold to a collector in Evanston.  I liked the image so much that I photographed my painting and adapted the digital image to create the 16 x 12 inch open edition signed print shown above.  (The print shown isn't signed yet-- I sign them in pencil just above the copyright notice at the lower left.) 

Occasionally I find a subject so interesting I do more than one version of it, and this is such a case.  Using my first painting as a guide, I made a much bigger black-and-white ink drawing with a fat calligraphy pen on a 40 x 30 inch sheet of heavy watercolor board.  In doing so, I made a few subtle changes to the composition.  I think of it as an study in spidery linearity. 

OXBOW, SAUGATUCK, MICHIGAN

Oxbow Coke Machine, Saugatuck, Michigan, 24 x 20 inch pencil drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

Several times I have been to the summer art workshops at the old artists' colony Oxbow, which now belongs to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, my alma mater.  It occupies the site of a 19th Century lumbering camp around an oxbow lake near Saugatuck, Michigan.  I did this drawing there of one of the outbuildings and a gnarly old pine tree back in the days when carbonated drinks were vended in glass bottles.

NIGHT ON THE LEVEE AT ST. LOUIS

Steam (Levee at St. Louis), Oil and colored pencil on paper painting by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

One night in St. Louis, Missouri, I drove out on the Mississippi River levee where the excursion boats are docked.  The last cruises of the day were over and one of the boats was shutting down its boilers and vented a long stream of white steam against the night sky.  I thought the scene would make a painting and I went back the next day and took photos of the boats and floating dock, but I painted the scene as it had looked at night.  

THE SIGN OF THE KING'S HEAD, KETTLEWELL, NORTH YORKSHIRE

King's Head Sign, 6 x 6 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

   

The Sign of the King's Head, Kettlewell, North Yorkshire, 14 x 10 inch watercolor by George C. Clark    SOLD

I painted this on a sleepy Sunday morning sitting on a bench on a traffic island in the middle of the intersection of the two main roads in the village of Kettlewell.  The King's Head is one of three pubs in town.  It's in the white building a little recessed from its neighbors.  I walked down and made a close-up drawing of the pub's sign in my sketchbook before I painted it.

BROWN COUNTY CATBIRD

Catbird at the Suet Feeder, Brown County State Park, Indiana, 5 x 6 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

I went to the opening of the Kinsey Institute Juried Show at Indiana University that I have a figure painting in last weekend.  You can see a NOT SAFE FOR WORK posting about that show at whatsnewfromgeorgecclark.tumblr.com.  I arrived the night before the opening and stayed in Nashville, Indiana, about 16 miles from the campus in Bloomington.  Nashville is the gateway to Brown County State Park, which preserves the beautiful highlands of south central Indiana that have been attracting artists since the Nineteenth Century.  The Abe Martin Lodge there is named after the newspaper comic character created by cartoonist and humorist Kin Hubbard, and features many examples of his art.  I spent most of Friday hiking and sketching in the park.  At the Nature Center they have an observation room where you can watch birds and small forest creatures feeding through a big one-way glass window.  I sketched this catbird feeding upside-down on the suet feeder.

LOUISIANA BOATYARD

Boatyard, Bayou LaFourche, Louisiana, 18 x 24 oil and pencil on paper by George C. Clark     SOLD

I painted these fishing boats on the same trip that I painted the steamboat Natchez on.  I posted the painting of the Natchez back in April of 2011.

BIRDS OF PREY AUDUBON CENTER, MAITLAND, FLORIDA

Birds of Prey, Audubon Center, Maitland, Florida, 9 x 12 inch print from an ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

I sketched two hawks, a buzzard, and an owl from life at the Audubon Center near Orlando, Florida.  The owl's name is Owen.  This is one of two drawings I will have in Avram Eisen's "The Birds," the Spring exhibition at AVRAM EISEN GALLERY, 5204 N. Damen, Chicago, IL 60625.  The show opens with a brunch reception on Saturday, May 5, 2012 from 11am to 2pm and runs through the end of May.  Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 11am to 6pm, Saturday noon to 5pm, and Sunday noon to 4pm.

SNAILSHELL HARBOR ON LAKE MICHIGAN

Snailshell Harbor, Fayette State Park, Michigan, 12 x 16 inch watercolor bt George C. Clark    SOLD

I painted this harbor scene in Fayette State Park on the Lake Michigan shore of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

GARDEN WATERFALL

Waterfall in Chicago Botanic Garden, 16 x 12 inch watercolor by George C. Clark    SOLD

I painted this waterfall on a summer day at the Chicago Botanic Garden, which is located in one of the lakeshore suburbs north of the city.

TOPIARY

Garden Gate, Lake Forest, Illinois,  28 x 22 inch oil, pencil, and pastel on paper painting by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

I rarely use pastel, but here I think it worked well describing the texture of the foliage on the topiary bushes and the trees in the distance.

PENDARVIS

Pendarvis, Mineral Point, Wisconsin,  6.5 x 11 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

Pendarvis is a carefully restored collection of early 19th century houses built by miners from Cornwall in the lead-mining town of Mineral Point.  It is a Wisconsin State Historic Site now.

A ROOFTOP IN BERLIN

A ROOFTOP IN BERLIN

Airlift C-47 on the Roof of the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin, 13 x 16 inch ink, watercolor and colored pencil painting by George C. Clark    UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ART COLLECTION

Here is another painting from my visit to Germany last summer, although I painted this one recently from photographs I took on-site.  This American military transport plane is suspended by cables from a crane-like gantry over the roof of the new Deutsches Technikmuseum (what we would call a Museum of Science and Industry) in Berlin.   It is both a part of the museum's aviation collection and a salute to the Allied Airlift that saved the city when the Russians cut off ground transportation in 1948-9.  The plane is cantilevered to hang out over the facade of the building.  The photo below shows what it looks like when you are approaching the museum at ground level.  It's pretty spectacular.

Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin,  photo by George C. Clark