WHEN I LEFT THE ISLAND OF HYDRA IN 1959, I thought I’d be right back. But life happened, and I didn’t return to Greece until very recently. Two art residencies brought me back to the Mediterranean, one on the island of Crete, the other in Italy.
“For over twenty years my concentration as a painter, has been on the Arctic and although this departure might seem radical, in Greece, I was again in an arid rocky landscape surrounded by the sea. Of course, I found no ice in Greece and the changes I witnessed in the Arctic moment to moment and day to year were nowhere near as extreme here, but time still played an important role and in Greece as in Italy I could feel the deep layering of human history just about everywhere I went. Most of my attention was drawn to sites in Santorini, an island transformed by volcanic eruption, and to the medieval city of Siena, Italy.”
—Marcia Clark, 2021
PAINTING IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS in Alaska, Norway and Greenland during the past few years has made me especially aware of climate change. A web page featuring a virtual installation of many of these paintings is available on the internet, under the heading “In Search of Ice”. The subject is a topical one these days, with many personal ramifications for me, but it is my expectation that the images will speak for themselves on their own terms.
My paintings are perceptually based. I work in oil in a painterly style, with attention to topographic features. I usually begin by jotting down something that’s caught my attention in a small sketchbook. The subject is often too big to be caught within the rectangle and the next sketches are often pieced together in a way that maintains the rhythm of what I have seen. The paintings, done in oil, are always representational, but with a moving focus, as eye and mind linger on some elements and pass lightly over others. I like to work on a variety of surfaces and formats and usually carry linen, Denril and small pieces of aluminum cut in varying sizes and shapes. These form the basis for my larger paintings, often done on sheets of frosted Mylar, which is similar to the Denril but heavier.
—Marcia Clark, 2018