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Clayton is currently in Thomasville Georgia at the 19th Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival. He has been attending this large sporting and wildlife art show since its inception, and was the featured artist in 1999. Although initially Clayton only displayed his sculptures, as he has painted more and more of the wildlife around him he now includes a number of paintings each time he travels to this event.
Clayton works on a variety of paintings every day, in part due to the different lighting of landscapes and in part because one can only apply so much oil paint before it needs to dry. One of his current studies is a landscape depicting the warmth of early morning light on a frosty morning. As he paints Clayton writes down what he has done: the colors and how much of each he used in the hillside and the woods; the difference from fore to background; the layers he has used to achieve a color harmony in the painting; what he has done to depict the effects of light in the scene. In this specific painting there is a horse with a blanket in the foreground. He noted that he used ultramarine of different thicknesses to portray the blue blanket and its folds, and then added cerulean blue where the blanket was lit by the sun. By keeping a log, Clayton can later compare his studies to see what has worked best to depict the desired effect.
Clayton’s art reflects the environment in which he works and lives. Now mid- October, Clayton has been gathering pears and apples form the orchard he planted ten years ago. The vegetable garden is winding down, though still producing some above ground fruits and vegetables. Clayton picked the last Warren pear and brought it along with a couple of Sungold tomatoes into the studio to paint instead of eat. Since his pears aren’t sprayed with any chemicals, sometimes insects will burrow in, leaving indentations as the pear grows around their entry point. Organic growing can make for interesting looking fruit, and this pear has character. The two orange cherry tomatoes offer an eye catching contrast in color to the green Warren pear.
Clayton recently finished sculpting a turkey vulture with a deer. This is a familiar sight where we live: deer are hit by cars and their carcasses are cleaned off the road by vultures. This was technically a challenging piece for Clayton, but he was satisfied by the end. (“It is not done until it is done,” he always says.) Clayton took the rubber mold (negative – see the Process section on this web site) to the foundry,waited a few hours while they created the wax, and was able to rework the wax that same day. Quick work at New Art Foundry – thank you! It will be in bronze by the end of October.
Always open to different ideas and approaches, Clayton is about to head west to Wyoming to the Susan Kathleen Black Foundation Workshop of Plein Air Painting. The program suggests bringing a whole list of painting paraphernalia. One piece of equipment not mentioned on the list, but which is a staple for Clayton when plein air painting, is his pochade box. A pochade box contains the easel in the interior of the open lid and the palette fits in the interior of the bottom portion of the box.
Clayton designed his first pochade box over sixteen years ago when he was painting street scenes in Paris. The lap held version he is using now is ultra-light – all of 2 lbs, 4 oz., and created it to hold a specific canvas – Centurion oil primed linen – and the palette section to fit Richardson’s Grey Matters 9 by 12 inch palette paper, which is affixed using a spray adhesive. This is a lap held pochade, not one set on a tripod. It is secured by a Velcro strap to the leg of the painter. There are true advantages to this system. When Clayton is in a boat which can rock back and forth with wake, he and the easel and palette rock together, so he is not trying to reach up to a painting that may move independently. In addition there is no need to carry a tripod around as well. Clayton can carry his pochade box, a collapsible stool and a container of mineral spirits and a small trash jar in one trip.
This summer when Clayton was painting while sitting anchored in a small motorboat at 5:30 a.m., a lobsterman, who happened to be a good friend, passed by. A cursory glance made him think to himself, “Now I have seen everything! Some guy out on a boat with his computer.” So slim and portable, that’s the impression it gave. Lots of laughs followed later when Rick found out what what it really was.
One of the aspects of island life is that there are so only so many caretakers and handy men, and the amount of work that needs to be accomplished during the summer can be monumental. Lining up a project is no guarantee that is will get started on time because there are always emergencies and situations with priority.
Clayton knew he had to replace the roof on his studio this summer. Shingles were flying off at an alarming rate and there were leaks. Once Clayton arrived and spoke with the caretaker who was going to replace the roof, the shingles were ordered. To keep the interruption of his work inside the studio to a minimum, Clayton decided to work alongside the two men removing the old shingles and applying the tar paper to keep the rain flowing off until the new shingles arrived. Unfortunately, the day the shingles were to arrive the cable on the barge broke, so the delivery was put off for a week. During that time the sun beat down and the tar paper on the roof was old enough that it shrank and became ineffectual. So there was a trip to procure replacement tar paper and Clayton reapplied it and waited for the delivery of new shingles. Someplace along the way there was an emergency which took the men off the job, and then another batch of bad weather. It has been three weeks, and the roofing job is almost done with only the capping remaining. Luckily the work proceeded far enough that Clayton is happily back to work inside instead of on top of his studio.
Clayton is rising at 4:15 am on clear mornings in order to bicycle down to the dock, row out to his skiff and motor to a spot where a multicolored granite rock caught his eye. He particularly appreciates the way the early morning sun accentuates the brilliant yellow, orange and green of the rock, which contrast sharply with the dark crevasses in the shadows. At a bit off high tide, on a typical windless morning, the placid sea provides a balance to the rough textured rock. Cormorants and gulls regularly settle on this perch above the fish filled ocean and they donate a white cap of guano to complete the spectrum from dark to white.
Today Clayton is installing a life size fox sculpture at a local café/ice cream store. Since the name of the café refers to a fox and there are many foxes in our area, the sculpture is entirely appropriate. When Clayton installs life size pieces in public places they are always securely fastened so they don’t “walk away.” Each site has its unique characteristics – stones, gravel, grass, and Clayton has to plan exactly how he will place and secure the bronze. In order to not move a large heavy bronze to decide on its final position, Clayton often suggests that his clients borrow a much lighter fiberglass of the bronze. That way clients can move it here and there, change the angle, etc., without a forklift running across their lawn.
Clayton’s family of origin moved to a coastal Maine island when their youngest child went off to school. Clayton, as well as many of his nine siblings, go to Islesford when they can during the summer. The advantage of the portability of painting is that Clayton can paint when he is on the island. Although he has yet to arrive, two of his paintings, Reassurance and Pump House Lichen are displayed at the Islesford Dock Gallery.
Welcome to Clayton’s new web site! Although Clayton’s first artistic endeavors were sculptures, curiosity lead him to painting, and a confidence in his vision added furniture, house design, as well as gardens. This web site reflects all of Clayton’s abilities, giving a sense of him as a whole person who approaches all aspects of his life artistically.
Clayton doesn’t consider any of his artistic choices as static. The garden changes each year, often so Clayton can grow a plant he would like to paint or draw. Sculptures and paintings move around the house, studio and display spaces. Even the furniture is shifted seasonally so as to focus around the fireplace in the winter and to offer seats for the great views out the window in the warmer months.
This web site offers the opportunity to witness this dynamic vision of Clayton’s art in his daily life.
Apologies for such a long hiatus. Clayton and his entire family – wife and three offspring – have been working on renovating Clayton’s studio, which he originally built in 1976. Additions have been added to both the east and west ends, a new roof and new siding for the entire building and most recently a new interior paint job.
This new space allows Clayton to separate the dusty work, such as plaster casting, from the oil paint which picks up dust and dirt easily. One now enters from the east via a porch to a room that will have paintings, both stored and hung for view, and some bronzes or plaster casts displayed. The new west end will hold the recycled clay, the plaster, wire armatures and the other more dust carrying items of his sculpture paraphernalia.
This leaves Clayton’s original 18 by 24 foot work space free of clutter for actual work on both paintings and sculpture. The expected completion date? November 15. Come by and see the studio, but always call first because Clayton still works from life, both in his paintings and sculptures.
Clayton garnered an award with his still life painting entitled The Yellow Bowl which he entered into the annual juried show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club. This year the show was entitled The Art of the Flower since the show started at the same time as the Philadelphia Flower Show, though it continues until March 23. Drop by and see his painting, or if you aren’t in the area contact us to see an image.