Biennial 2008 - Vernon N. Clarke

Although Vernon N. Clarke studied art at Camberwell Art College in London in the 1960s and continued to draw while at the Royal School of Military Engineering and his subsequent career in HM Prison Service, Bermuda, it was not until the 1980s that he really began to blossom as an artist and exhibit regularly. After taking extension courses in drawing, painting and photography at Bermuda College, he returned to England to earn a BA in Fine Arts (Hons) from the Kent Institute of Art and Design. Since then he has exhibited in Bermuda and the UK, and completed numerous portrait commissions. He was awarded a Fellowship of the Masterworks Foundation in 2001.

Artist's statement

"The Portrait painting remains foremost in my personal artistic oeuvre. There are many centuries of historic influences for me to choose within my continuum into figurative art. The figure still remains the ultimate depiction within the tradition of images, persona, and painterly definition. My senses are at their most acute when defining my world and defining myself as the painter of contemporary life.

My current work draws deeply from my historic studies! The selection of my work over the past year is influenced by historic revision. The present is well represented and the Bermudian persona is revealed through the ancient medium of oil on canvas. Caravaggio (1573-1610) still presents an unerring influence, his pictorial narrative remains only secondary to his progressive technical innovations. Even later in my painting career I find that there is much to learn from him.

A musical theme often prevails throughout my work; our homegrown musical talents are prodigious, historic, and seriously coining a newer, more progressive rhythmic currency into the 21st century. The ancient medium, the primordial urgency to make music, and the figurative tradition all meet within my work."

Recent highlights

2007 - Portraits and then some, Edinburgh Gallery, Bermuda Society of Arts
2006 - Awarded Professional/Adult Class painting prize, Grand Art Festival, Masterworks Foundation
2005 - The Drawing Show, The Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard
2005 - New Portraits, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art
2005 - Artists of the Caribbean, Bermuda Society of Arts
2004 - Awarded C-Travel painting prize, Grand Art Festival, Masterworks Foundation
2004 - A Grain of Sand, The Onion Gallery, Bermuda Society of Arts, Group Exhibition (inspired by the poetry of William Blake)
2003 - The Nude, Edinburgh Gallery, Bermuda Society of Arts, Group Exhibition
2002 - Wasted Spaces, Masterworks Foundation
2002 - Empty Cases, Edinburgh Gallery, Bermuda Society of Arts