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.