ART TIMES: Literary Journal and Resource for the Fine & Performing Arts

Timothy J. Clark
at Hammer Galleries

(Photos courtesy of Hammer Galleries)

By RAYMOND J. STEINER
ART TIMES March 2009

PAINTERS WHO HAVE tried their hand at representational art in the medium of watercolor know that it takes more than the will to succeed…much, much more. First and foremost the accomplished watercolorist needs a sure hand, since each stroke of the brush is not only telling but permanently “on record” for all to see, each misstep a glaring distraction from the motif and/or effect desired. In short, it takes the confidence of a mature draftsman, one with a seasoned eye for light and form, a sure sense of composition, a sensibility that is trained in the use of colors and how they work one against (or for) the other, a fluidity of brushstroke, and lastly, an innate instinct for just what makes a ‘good’ picture. The 30+ paintings in this solo exhibition at the Hammer Galleries* certainly reveals Timothy J. Clark as firmly in charge of all of the intricacies of this most demanding of mediums…without doubt, Clarke’s “Sense of Solace” reflects the craft of a master watercolorist.

Vermazza 1994 watercolor on paper

It ought to be noted that there were several oils in the show — “McSorley’s Bar”, “Serenity”, and the charming little study, “Studio Sink” — but, for this viewer, it was the watercolors that consistently drew me onward through the several galleries that housed the show. If the two paintings displayed in Hammer’s front windows — “The Bicycle” and “San Carlos al Corso Crepuscular” — offered a ‘sneak preview’ of the range of motifs that lie in store for the viewer inside, a large watercolor hanging on the right wall as you entered set the stage for the complexity of ClART TIMES: Literary Journal and Resource for the Fine & Performing Arts