Happy-Go-Lucky by Myra Clarke

Artist Biography

Myra Clarke is a Saskatoon-based watercolour painter and outdoor enthusiast, who combines these two passions by painting landscapes from around her home and her travels. Through her paintings, she reconnects us with the natural world and reminds us to slow down; not only to hear and observe, but also to feel, the power of nature around us and within us.

Her chosen medium reveals the luminosity and rich colours created through watercolour and she considers herself to be a partner with water, working with this basic element of life, to create art. Myra is largely self-taught, learning from workshops, books, and lots of practice. She is also a watercolour instructor and has taught a variety of watercolour workshops in her community.

Myra’s work can be found in many private collections throughout Canada.  Her work is carried by Dandelion Art Gallery and Framing in Saskatoon, and seasonally at Wasagaming Art Gallery and Poor Michael’s Emporium in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. Examples of her work can be found online on Facebook @MyraClarkeArt.

Artist Statement

Working in watercolour continues to challenge and inspire me. While watercolour is sometimes considered a demanding and unforgiving medium, it has a fresh and spontaneous quality that I find so appealing.  Watercolour is the best medium to represent the quality of light in the sky. It is also the best medium to blend pigments to create rich variation in colours. Water has a unique ability to hold and carry pigments across the paper, and when choosing the pallet to represent my subject, I often thrill to see the extraordinary combinations that are created when they are blended in a wash. While my art is representational, I like to exaggerate and play with colour to communicate visual interest and to evoke certain emotions in my work.

Being out of doors in a natural environment has always been important to me, and most of my reference material comes from the prairies and boreal forests where I have lived most of my life. We live in an advanced technological age, and while we enjoy all the benefits, such as cellphones and jet travel, it is easy to get lost in the noise and busy-ness around us.  Taking time to be still in nature seems even more important now, as a way to calm and soothe the soul. It just seemed natural then, when I started painting, to become a landscape artist. In my art I want not only to represent the beauty in the variety of landscapes, but also to communicate the joy and serenity that I experience in these settings.