About
Biography
Born in London, Caron Clarke is an artist who works predominantly in watercolour. She paints landscapes, portraits and the human form. Her work is full of a sense of place, a love of light and shadow and a rich play of colour.
Clarke is a storyteller and her work is both a precise response to her chosen subject matter and rich in its imagination and invention. In the 2020 portrait of the model and actor Rick Mora we see these two elements brought together beautifully. The sharp definition of his muscles, the folds of his jeans, and the reflection of light on his leather shoes are a precise and analytical response to her subject. The setting Clarke has created for him, in its pattern and abstraction, suggests both symbol and mystery. She has a deft touch, modulating tone and light with nuance and control.
Clarke cites her influences as including Soralla, Velaquez, Degas, John Singer Sargeant, Egon Shiele, Lautrec, Euan Uglow, Tamara de Lempicka, Malcolm Liepke, Sam Toft, PJ Crook, Michael Sowa, Jack Vetriano, Rosa Sepple and Chris Ofili.
Collaboration and engagement have been recurring themes throughout Clarke’s career. She has run life drawing classes and taught in schools. She collaborated with a chocolatier in 2006’s Eat the Paint and in 2008 took part in the BBC’s Live Life Drawing. In 2007, Caron was commissioned to illustrate an Austrian children's book Neudegg Farm wakes up.
In 2020 she appeared in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year.
Education
1998 - Postgraduate Certificate in Art and Design Education, Middlesex University
1995 - BA (Hons) Illustration, University of Westminster
1991 - Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Camberwell School of Art