Lyngen Alps - running for miles and miles along the north Norway coast, mysterious under the strange silent light.

Lyngen Alps II 360x643 mm

Fire on Board II• (right) - excitement of fire starting between ports in the engine room. The vessel limped into Havøysund. Everything was orderly. At breakfast we were told to go to our cabins and collect outdoor wear. We quietly assembled at the entrance deck when we reached port. Tables with hot drinks and refreshments were set up on the quayside as we disembarked. The firemen running with the hose is not factual. No-one showed any sign of haste and firemen just wandered about! It took a little time to cool the engine which was then out of action for the rest of the trip. This was not a problem as there were other engines, although there was no more "full steam ahead". Nordkyn 328x354mm - Norway's northwestern tip before the coast turns east along the Lyngen Alps towards Russia.

Fire On Board II 352x318mm

The Sands, Ramsgate 450x910mm •

All photographs of the 2004 Exhibition by Joe Low (+44) (0)23 8079 0187

On to a second selection of Margery's current work
On to a third selection of Margery's current work
On to a fourth selection of Margery's current work

From Margery's 2001 Exhibition at Ramsgate Library Gallery

50 YEARS OF PAINTINGS BY LITTLE-KNOWN PUPIL OF L.S.LOWRY

STRANDS

A Retrospective

PICTURES BY HILDA MARGERY CLARKE, BA (Hons.) FRSA

RAMSGATE LIBRARY GALLERY

Guildford Lawn, Ramsgate Kent Tel: 01843 593532
4 August - 1 September 2001

Click on Pictures to Enlarge

The walls of the little house where she was born and brought up were adorned with Mattinson's coastal and landscape watercolours in fine gold mounts and frames. These, together with the established fashion of realistic depictions of stories from literature and the ancient world, pretty children and scenes, were what she expected from pictures. Even then she admired her grandfather's most.

Margery had always painted, watercolours of course. Lowry alerted her to the Nocturnes by Whistler, whom he greatly admired, and tactfully did not remark aloud about that influence on her new impressionist style. Henceforward he took a keen interest in her work. Inevitably, it came about that she moved on to oils under his informal tuition, occasionally in his studio.

It was not until after she married and moved to Southampton, where she still lives, that her approach to painting became serious in the way it was to him. He came to stay often and in 1960, on his strong advice, she began to attend part-time life-drawing classes at Southampton Art College, just as he had done in Manchester. By the 80s she was still there, having taken in printmaking and sculpture. In 1976, she went for a month full-time to the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, for printmaking under Chris Orr and Norman Ackroyd.

She met Eric Meadus in the drawing classes at Southampton. His drawing was superb: he really only needed the model, not the tuition. He expanded Margery's interest in colour and in more recent artists who did not interest Lowry. Eric was musically talented and a fine pianist. Exploring everything, he wanted to discuss and share discoveries. He had worked doggedly to perfect his painting, which had reached full maturity when, in 1970, he died suddenly, aged 39.

This was a shattering blow. In 1968 & '69 two tiny unserious Xmas shows of decorative arts by Eric and the growing Clarke family had been held in the Clarke's home. A more serious follow-up exhibition of Meadus pictures was planned, but did not happen at the time. These all sowed the seed from which grew The First Gallery, one of whose aims was to prevent his remarkable work being forgotten.

In 1987 a tour of Lowry drawings & Crispin Eurich photographs launched The First Gallery into touring exhibitions, followed in 1995 by Arthur Mattinson's Architect at Leisure, both of which came to Ramsgate. Now a nationwide Meadus tour is in preparation. The strands have come full circle.

HILDA MARGERYCLARKE BA(Hons.) FRSA: Curriculum Vitae

Work in Collections:

Publications:

On to a second selection of Margery's current work
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