Surf Artist
Martin Clarke
I've been a surfer for 40 years, starting way back in 1968 riding a 9'10" Klemm Bell triple stringer in the frigid on-shore waves of Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, wearing a football jumper in place of a wetsuit. In the following years, with a smaller board and the luxury of a real wetsuit, I explored every break I could find on the East and West Coasts of Victoria, and on Phillip Island. After graduating college in 1975, it was off to the warm waters of Queensland and the incredible barrels of Kirra Point and Snapper Rocks. Then in 1976, a surfari to the west brought me to the pristine power of Margaret River, and I was hooked. I've been in Western Australia ever since, surfing up and down the coast from the rugged and beautiful South Coast, to the power and variety of the Capes Region, to the desert perfection of The Bluff and Gnarloo in the far North West. I now live in Mandurah, south of Perth,and have two quality left hand point breaks just a fifteen minute walk from my house. I was a surf judge for ten years, judging numerous State Titles, Australian Titles all over Australia, the World Juniors at Kuta in Bali and the Indonesian Open at Lugundri Bay in Nias. Needless to say, I've seen a lot of waves and been lucky enough to have surfed a lot too.
My education and career have been exclusively in science. I've been involved in science research since 1979. So it was out of the ordinary when I first picked up a brush in June 2001, and attempted to paint something to hang on the walls of the house we had just built. Little did I know what I was awakening. The world of art exploded for me, and I've been totally hooked ever since. With my surfing background, seascapes and waves were a natural choice. I've explored other subjects from still life to portraits to figurative and landscapes, but seascapes keep drawing me irresistibly back. In 2005 I injured my back, putting me out of the water. For two years I was a house bound invalid. Two years which could have been hell, but instead turned into two years of artistic heaven. It was a turning point for my art, enabling me to refine my work and lift it to the point where I now have gallery representation in two states. For the last two years I have been commissioned to do sponsor presentation pieces for the Margaret River Drug Aware Pro, a Six star men's and women's WQS comp.
I'm an ordinary bloke with an extraordinay interest in painting. I've been told I'm talented, but I have to disagree. It's not talent, it's a knowledge and love of the subject, it's painting many, many pieces, it's making mistakes and learning from them, it's observing the light and the colour, it's the hope and belief that the next piece is going to be your best piece, it's the constant, unending striving for the perfection you know you will never attain, but for which you reach nonetheless. Light plays a major role in my work, the way it shapes and colours form, the way it can reflect and refract, causing a dazzling bright or a warm and mysterious dark. The coastline and it's surf makes for an endlessly fascinating and compelling subject.
People ask where my inspiration comes from...
Have you ever walked on to a beach on an early Summer's morning, and seen the ripples dance over the multicoloured shallows with a dark ocean beckoning beyond? Have you ever sheltered behind a rock in a Winter's storm and seen the sun rays lancing down to light storm tossed, angry waves? Have you ever stood on the shore and watched and listened to the boom of huge Autumn surf pounding out the back, with the sun glistening off towering wave faces and the spray sparkling like a million diamonds as it's blown off the lip? Have you ever seen Spring's warming waters change colours as the weather changes, from steel greys to dazzling blues, from sandy yellows to breathtaking turquoises? If you have, you know where my inspiration comes from. If you haven't, I hope my work can help to take you there.
