Gwen Clarke

Gwen was born in Orbost in 1935 and has been drawing and painting since she was a child.  Gwen worked as a midwife from 1955 for twelve years and some of her early works are inspired by this experience.

“Painting has a kind of magnetism that has followed me right throughout my life, making me feel excited and inspired”.

Since 1986 Gwen has had ten solo exhibitions including three in Sydney and three in Melbourne.  In 1988 her work was selected for hanging in the Blake Prize and in 1991 she was the overall winner at the Herald Sun Outdoor Art show.  Her winning work was the first collected by the Herald & Weekly Times for their corporate collection.  Gwen was also a feature artist in the Paris exhibition entitled “Up from Downunder”

Gwen is one of the artists featured in the Sandra Warne book “Australian Naïve Art” which was published in 1994.

Gwen has inspired many others to paint over the years and tutored in Bairnsdale for 4 years in the 1990’s.  Of the many students 10 went on to found the Bairnsdale Contemporary Art Naïve group and still exhibit annually.  Gwen shares her passion for art with local artists and recently exhibited with this group the Woorak Artists.

Gwen is represented in private galleries in UK, Canada and Australia and in public collections of the Nursing Archive of Australia and Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery.

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These four small paintings were painted in 2009.

acrylic on canvas 14.5 x 14.5cm

KOOKABURRA


LYREBIRD

ROPED IN


SNAKE CHARMER