Duncan Clarke

Duncan Clarke (b.1958) is a modern landscape artist based in Oxfordshire.

Duncan works mainly in oil and gouache and crayon, working directly in the landscape. His studio-based paintings are usually only made after a prolonged study of the subject matter ‘in situ’. His work describes the relationship between nature and the impact of modern farming techniques, with the artist as witness to the changes and losses in our rural heritage. Sometimes, however, the beauty of a landscape needs only to be recorded and celebrated with a modern interpretation.

Duncan was born in Great Dunmow, Essex, where many of his relatives worked on the land. This engendered in him a fascination for the countryside and its fauna and flora. After Art College, he moved to London, where, as well as painting, he worked as a printmaker and etcher, and as a muralist and scenic painter in the West End. He spent 5 years in SW France in the 1990s, since when he has lived and worked in Oxfordshire for over 25 years.

Duncan studied Fine Art and Printmaking at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, the groundbreaking college established by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis. His tutors included the artists Peter Kinley, Michael Simpson, Bhupen Khakhar and Howard Hodgkin.

His work has been used on book covers for the poet Fiona Sampson’s “Limestone Country”, and for Mike Cooley’s “Delinquent Genius” and “The Search for Alternatives”.

Duncan has exhibited widely in group and solo shows in England and abroad. Highlights include:

One man shows:
Smiths, Covent Garden
Bronwen White Gallery, New Orleans
Fumel Centre Culturel, France
Coventry Gallery, London
East/West Gallery, London
North House Gallery, Manningtree, Essex
The Chair, Hay-on-Wye

Group shows:
Finalist, Hunting Prize, London, Sheffield, Paris
Southlands Arts Centre, London
Glass, Light, Paint, Clay, Peterborough Museum
Zuleika Gallery, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
New English Art Club, Mall Galleries, London