MR. PUNCH, THE DOCTOR (no, not that Doctor) & THE DEVIL

Mr. Punch, the Doctor & the Devil, 8 x 11 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

I made this pen and ink drawing of Punch and Judy Show hand puppets on-site in the Toy Museum in Brighton, England and added the watercolor later.  It will be exhibited in the Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists show 2018 LATER IMPRESSIONS at the Old Town Triangle Art Center, 1763 N. North Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60614 from September 4 to 26, 2018.  There will be an Artists' Reception on Sunday, September 9, from 2 to 5pm.  All are welcome. 

ROOFTOPS OF CHESTER, ENGLAND

Rooftops of Eastgate, Chester, England, 9.5 x 12.5 ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

The ancient city of Chester, on the Welsh border, is the last stop for a subway train you can board in downtown Liverpool.  The ground floors of the old buildings lining Eastgate are full of modern shops and eateries, even a Disney Store.  I preferred to look up for this on-site drawing.

This is the last weekend to see Traveler's Sketchbook, my exhibition at Beverly Arts Center in Chicago.

TRAVELER'S SKETCHBOOK EXHIBITION AT BEVERLY ARTS CENTER IN CHICAGO NOV. 6 to DEC. 6, 2015

Albert Dock, Liverpool UK, 13.5 x 9.5 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

Albert Dock, drawn on my recent visit to England, will be one of 50-plus paintings and graphics from my Traveler's Sketchbook Series featured in the main floor galleries of the BEVERLY ARTS CENTER, 2407 W. 111th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60655 from November 6 to December 6, 2015.  Gallery hours are 9am to 9pm Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm Saturday, and 1 to 4pm Sunday.   "Traveler's Sketchbook" is what I call the mostly small-scale, mostly on-site watercolors and drawings I make of places and things I find interesting on my travels.  Subjects range from my own Chicago back yard to the back roads of Europe.  Also shown will be a few of my large-scale studio landscapes.

THERE WILL BE AN ARTIST'S RECEPTION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15 FROM 2 TO 4PM.  Everyone is welcome.

ON THE EAST SUSSEX SEACOAST

The View from the Beekeeper's Cottage, 10.5 x 14.5 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

I drew this one in England about a month ago.  Those who know who the beekeeper in the painting's title is may appreciate what it means when I tell them that two and a half weeks ago I had breakfast at Speedy's Sandwich Bar and Cafe in London at a table positioned almost exactly where Mycroft told Watson the bad news about Irene Adler.  And I enjoyed the omelette, chips and cappuccino too.

UPDATE:  APRIL 20, 2016
I just saw the movie Mr. Holmes on Netflix.   In it, Ian McKellan portrays 93 year old retired detective Sherlock Holmes keeping bees on the East Sussex downs, a retirement mentioned several times in Conan Doyle's stories.  I swear that when I made and titled this painting in England last fall I had no idea that these chalk cliffs called the Seven Sisters had been portrayed in the movie as being within walking distance of Mr. Holmes' (the beekeeper's) cottage.  

JET-LAGGED IN BRIGHTON, ENGLAND

Jet-lagged in Brighton, U.K., 14 x 10 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

This is me about three weeks ago, on the first night of a visit to the United Kingdom.   I can never sleep much on airplanes which made for a very long day.  I crashed after supper in my hotel in Brighton on Britain's south coast,  but then found myself wide awake in the middle of the night.  I pulled a chair into the bathroom, set it in front of the sink, and drew this self-portrait.  The chrome faucet in the foreground is real and everything else in the drawing is the reflection I saw in the mirror.

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.

GRAND UNION CANAL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

Grand Union Canal, Northamptonshire, 12 x 16 inch watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

I found this scene just up the towpath from Britain's Canal Museum in the town of Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire.

FAST FOOD

Fast Food in the Yorkshire Dales, 14 x 11 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark     SOLD

I found this fish and chips shop in Pately Bridge, a market town in Nidderdale in Yorkshire.  We were on our way to Whitby and had stopped here briefly for a traveling companion to use an ATM, so I did this painting later from photographs.

ROOFTOPS OF KETTLEWELL

The View From the Skylight, 10 x 13 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

The Rooftops of Kettlewell, 13 x 10 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    SOLD

When I was taking part in an Earthwatch archaeology project in England, the volunteers stayed at the Youth Hostel in Kettlewell, a charming town in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.  The Youth Hostel occupies a three story 1828 building that is taller than anything in town except the church tower.  My room on the third floor didn't have a window, but if I stood up straight and tilted open the skylight, I could see this view overlooking the 17th century building across the street.  People can own property in Britain's national parks, but they can't tear down historic buildings, and new buildings have to match the style of the old ones.  The only way to tell new from old is that old buildings have external plumbing.
The Rooftops of Kettlewell is the view from the end of the third floor hallway looking over the building next door.

TWO FROM ALDEBURGH, ENGLAND

Trawler on the Beach, Aldeburgh, 15 x 11 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

Some years ago my friend Lou Taylor (a fellow contributing artist in the U.S. Air Force Art Program) and I were invited to spend a week in England visiting Air Force installations there.  We stayed at the Visiting Officers Quarters on the American base at Mildenhall R.A.F. near Cambridge, and we visited three other bases in southern England.   Artists on these missions are issued orders from the Pentagon and are treated as the civilian equivalent of a full colonel.  Some Air Force trips are tightly packed with scheduled activities that leave little free time for the artists, but often, especially on longer trips, there is some discretionary time built in for the artists to do their own thing.  When that happens I am ready; I do my homework and bring a guidebook and map.  On this occasion, when our escorting officer told us that because of a British holiday we had a free day with the use of her rented car, Lou said he would like to paint some fishing boats if there were any around.  I knew he was going to say that, and I whipped out a Michelin roadmap of East Anglia and pointed out Aldeburgh,  a Victorian/Edwardian seaside resort with an active fishing fleet.  I navigated and our escort drove us there in about an hour.

Aldeburgh is a charming town that has maintained its hundred-year-old look.  It was a sunny October day, too cool for most beach activities but perfect for painting.  There is a high shingle beach, part of it reinforced with a concrete seawall, that protects the town from North Sea storms.  Fishermen haul their trawlers out of the water and winch them up paths of wooden beams like railroad ties to the top of the beach to keep them out of high waves.  I painted Trawler on the Beach on-site and researched three other paintings that I did later in the studio.  House on the Seawall is the only one of those I still have.  The house is located about 200 yards south of where I painted the trawler.

House on the Seawall, Aldeburgh,  36 x 42 inch oil on panel by George C. Clark    SOLD

Although it was late in the season, the famous fish and chips wagon on the beachfront was still open, and we had an excellent lunch.  When the counterman asked if I wanted vinegar on my chips I said yes, thinking I should have them local-style.  Then he asked if I wanted salt.  I said, "I thought you ate them with vinegar instead of salt here."  "Oh, no," he replied, "we use both."  So I did too, and they were delicious.