ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:

I am Matthew Clarke's dad, prime carer and his artist assistant. So I am involved in the day to day supporting Matthew making art. Some of my best days are when I mix the paint for Matthew, clean the brushes, take the photos and Matt turns out large beautiful works in front of my eyes when I think he has some of the shapes and proportions wrong I try to contain myself and Matthew does a little bit of magic and proves me wrong.

Matthew has had a busy and successful couple of years painting through covid times and catching up with postponed exhibitions. He has been a finalist in the Drawing Prize at Bendigo Art Gallery, an Archibald Finalist for 2021, been in Geelong Print Prize and recently acquired by Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery as part of their National Works on Paper Prize as well as a successful exhibition at FirstDraft in Woolloomooloo. Matthew is a prolific artist and has been part of 111 group exhibitions and 27 solo exhibitions.

I feel flattered that Matt’s favourite piece for the exhibition Just the two of us is titled Dad gone swimming. It was painted during Covid times, the swimming pool was shut, dad still had his swimming gear ready, he accepted the need to shut the pool but didn’t like it. The painting came together from this story.

It has been a busy time for all the Clarke Family with post covid, travel, matt’s success and looking after our black groodle Sam.