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. 

I GET HONORABLE MENTION AWARD AT CAVA "ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS" EXHIBITION AT BRIDGEPORT ART CENTER

Photo by Pat Clark

I was very pleased and honored last night when my painting Belhaven Rooftops, Glasgow was given an Honorable Mention Award at the Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists exhibition ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS at the Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th Street in Chicago.  The show will be up through January 30, 2018.  Gallery hours are 8am to 6pm Monday through Saturday and 8am to noon Sunday.  You can see a better picture of this painting from my "Traveler's Sketchbook" series if you scroll down a few posts.   

RED ROCK CANYON NEAR LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, 10 x 16 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

Red Rock Canyon is a National Conservation Area about 15 miles west of Las Vegas, Nevada.  It features a visitors' center and a 13-mile one-way loop road with many scenic overlooks with parking for access to hiking trails and rock climbing sites.  Pat drove me around the circuit once while I scouted good locations for drawing, then a second time when we parked at the locations I had selected.  The plants in the foreground at the overlook where I drew the red rocks and distant mountains were not very interesting, so I "transplanted" some cactus from another site nearby.  Artistic license.

UPDATE:
Red Rock Canyon, Nevada is currently on exhibit in the exhibition PLEIN AIR PAINTERS OF CHICAGO at the Palette & Chisel Academy Gallery, 1012 N. Dearborn Street in Chicago through February 3, 2018.

ROOFTOPS OF BELHAVEN TERRACE, GLASGOW

Belhaven Rooftops, Glasgow, 16 x 10 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

One of the reasons for my 3-week visit to Scotland this summer was to attend the wedding festivities for my sister's stepdaughter.  She and her new husband live and work in London, but planned this destination wedding in his hometown of Glasgow, Scotland.  We stayed at the Belhaven Hotel, which occupies a lovely Edwardian building in the West End of Glasgow near the wedding venue.  Picture Belhaven Terrace as an oval street of outward-facing buildings squashed flat to run parallel to the Great Western Road.  The Belhaven Hotel is on the north-facing side of the terrace and looks over the Terrace, a narrow parkway, and then the Great Western Road.  The back of the hotel, where my room was located, looks over a low outbuilding toward the backs of the houses on the south-facing side of Belhaven Terrace.  One afternoon I opened the window and spent some time drawing this view. 

This painting is in my current exhibition at 3 Crowns Park Gallery.  See previous post for details. 

ON THE WATERFRONT IN OBAN, SCOTLAND

Oban, Scotland Waterfront, 14 x 10 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

Oban is a port city on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands facing the Isle of Mull.  It has a square harbor lined with old buildings including this elegant hotel constructed (according to a terra-cotta relief on its facade) in 1902.  The tide was out when I made this drawing and the blue-hulled salvage boat was resting on the harbor floor with its stern almost out of the water.  On a pier to the left of the hotel are two modern restaurants, one Scottish and one Italian, both featuring super-fresh seafood.  I ate at both of them more than once.  On the other side of the harbor, behind the ferry terminal, is a take-away shop where you can get hot local seafood for a fraction of restaurant prices if you don't mind eating standing up outdoors.  A platter of mussels boiled in wine broth was a little over $5 US (3.95 British pounds).

This is one of the new paintings that will be featured in my exhibition TRAVELER'S SKETCHBOOK: Paintings and Graphics by George C. Clark at the Three Crowns Park Gallery in Evanston in November.  I will post the formal announcement with full details here soon.

SAVE THE DATE: There will be an artist's reception on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 2, from 4-6pm.

George C. Clark drawing the Oban waterfront

NEWFOUND GAP IN THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK

Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 11 x 14.5 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

I drew this on-site in Tennessee last year.  It is one of the never-before exhibited pieces that will be in my upcoming Traveler's Sketchbook exhibition in November in Evanston.  There will be some overlap with the Traveler's Sketchbook show I did at Beverly Art Center in 2015 but there will also be a couple of large studio paintings of Venice and new watercolors and graphics from Scotland, Virginia, Tennessee, Nevada, Indiana and Illinois that weren't in that earlier exhibition.

I will post an announcement for the show with full details here soon.

Save the date:  the artist's reception will be Thursday, November 2, from 4 to 6pm. 

AT THE NEVADA NORTHERN RAILROAD MUSEUM

Nevada Northern Railroad, Ely, NV, 10 x 9 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

When I was out in Las Vegas a little over a month ago for the opening of the American Society of Railway Artists Exhibition I had a chance to drive up to Ely in central Nevada to see the remarkable Nevada Northern Railroad Museum which preserves an entire working railroad that served a big copper mine from the early 20th century until the mine closed in 1984.  This is one of my drawn on-site sketches.

BLACKROCK SUMMIT IN "LATER IMPRESSIONS" EXHIBITION AT EVANSTON ART CENTER

Blackrock Summit, Shenandoah National Park, 14.5 x 10.5 inch ink & watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

My painting of this view from the Appalachian Trail I painted last Spring will be on display in the Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists' LATER IMPRESSIONS exhibition at Evanston Art Center, 1717 Central Street, Evanston, IL 60201.  Everyone is invited to the Opening Reception on Sunday, October 16, 2016 from 1 to 4pm.  The show will run through November 9.  Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday 9am to 9pm, Friday 9am to 5pm, and Saturday and Sunday 9am to 4pm.

SANTA FE NO. 92 IN THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF RAILWAY ARTISTS NATIONAL EXHIBITION IN LAS VEGAS

Santa Fe No. 92, 15 x 10 inch ink and watercolor painting by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

My painting of Santa Fe No. 92 in "warbonnet" paint at the Illinois Railway Museum is included in the national ASRA artists' exhibition in the Big Springs Gallery at the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, Nevada, that will be on view from September 30, 2016 through January 8, 2017.  The gallery is open every day from 10:00am to 6:00pm.  The Springs Preserve is a 180 acre site that includes the Nevada State Museum, the Origen Museum (of Natural History), a Botanic Garden, hiking trails and other attractions.  There is an admission fee to enter the Preserve.

IN THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS OF VIRGINIA

Blackrock Summit, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, 14.5 x 10.5 ink and watercolor by George C, Clark   AVAILABLE

Here is the finished painting I was working on along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia in the previous post.

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.  

ANOTHER PAINTING FROM TARPON SPRINGS, FLORIDA

Two by Two by Two, 15 x 8 inch ink and watercolor painting by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

Another painting from my trip to Florida in March.  The title refers to the two ospreys in flight, the two big fishing trawlers moored across the river, and the two smaller sponge boats in the foreground.

AN HOMAGE TO KIN HUBBARD

Fisherman, Brown County, Indiana, 12 x 9 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark  AVAILABLE

I did this one by the spillway at Strahl Lake in Brown County, Indiana a couple of years ago.  Say, that fisherman... That's not old Abe Martin, is it?... No, it couldn't be.......

TANKMATES IN SARASOTA

Tankmates, Sarasota, Florida, 8 x 11 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

I drew this big green sea turtle from life at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota last month.  There were two manatees in the same tank, but they wouldn't hold still long enough to be drawn, so I photographed them.  Later I drew one in and then added watercolor.

OLD TRAWLER, TARPON SPRINGS, FLORIDA

Old Trawler, Tarpon Springs, Florida, 8 x 9 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

I drew this old trawler last month from a riverside picnic table in the old fishing and spongeing port of Tarpon Springs, just north of St. Petersburg.  Afterwards I had grilled shrimp for lunch at a restaurant on a pier that had its own shrimp boat tied up alongside.

KOI POND, SARASOTA, FLORIDA

Koi Pond, Sarasota, 10 x 8 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

I sketched the ornamental carp in this koi pond at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota about three weeks ago.  It's an amazing place, with the second largest collection of air plants (orchids, etc.) in the world.

ART SALE AT THE PALETTE AND CHISEL SATURDAY APRIL 26

Audubon House, Key West, 8.5 x 9 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

This little ink and watercolor landscape is one of 6 works on paper I will have in the Art Sale at the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts at 1012 N. Dearborn Street in Chicago next Saturday, April 26, from 11am to 4pm.  This sale features hundreds of work in various mediums.  My other paintings in the sale will be a railroad image and four female nudes.

2-DAY EXHIBITION AT ARTS ON ELSTON IN CHICAGO SEPTEMBER 27 AND 28, 2013

Santa Fe No. 92,  15 x 10 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

I will be showing my watercolors and miniature rustic twig furniture in a two day group show at ARTS ON ELSTON, 3446 N. Albany in Chicago.  The gallery is located on the corner of Albany and Elston Avenues across the street from Chief O'Neill's Pub, two blocks east of Kedzie and south of Addison.  The exhibition will be open Friday, September 27 from 6 to 10pm, and Saturday, September 28 from 11am to 7pm.  The Friday night reception features musical guests Sean Cleland and the Irish Music School of Chicago.  The exhibition features the art of 15 artists, most of whom will be present both days.  On Saturday the gallery will be a stop on the AVONDALE ART WALK.

Santa Fe No. 92 is one of several subjects from the Illinois Railway Museum in the show.  Also shown will be watercolors of dancers and subjects from my recent trip to South Florida.