“On the coastal path in Cornwall, I noticed a piece of gorse that reminded me of an arm and hand raised to frame a section of sky and sea. Small elements such as leaves, dry branches, roots and grasses often catch my eye. Drawn to their complexity and power of association, it is this initial encounter that is the starting point for the journey in to making a painting.” Clarke 2015

Jocelyn Clarke’s forthcoming exhibition will present a series of recent works depicting natural forms painted from observation set within the contours of remembered landscapes. Abstract qualities of colour, shape and sensation contrast with heightened realism.

The universally powerful symbols of sun and moon feature as punctuations to the arrangement of closely scrutinized elements. The twisted forms of the leaves of a thistle on its stem are reminiscent of patterns in rococo decoration. Memory intertwined with the present is central to her work.

The placement of the moon together with foreground areas of intricate delineation and dramatic yet strangely serene environments bear a relationship to British Surrealism, bringing to mind the work of such artists as Alan Reynolds and John Tunnard.

Jocelyn Clarke studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. She is a freelance lecturer at the National Gallery, Wallace Collection, and other public art venues in London. She has had solo exhibitions at the Jerwood Space (Jerwood Artists Platform), London, Adam Gallery, London and The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. Selected group exhibitions include Drawing 2009, The Drawing Room, and in the same year Summer Exhibition at The Royal Academy of Art, London and East International, Norwich in 1994.

'Her small paintings are muted and subtle and strange. They seem to stare at their ambiguous subjects with a focused intensity. They conjure the effect of something mysterious, only halfseen.' The Times, 2003