Joy Clarke and the Beauty in the Overlooked
Words & Interview, Molly Kelland
Whilst observing the LSAD 2022 Degree Show website, I came across previous LJMU Art School student figurative painter Joy Clarke. I was absorbed by her ability to capture the mundane, in a way that romanticised the idea of the ‘home.’ Clarke takes this one step further by using that of the mundane as her canvas. She paints on bedsheets, picnic blankets, and carboard adding textural intrigue whilst inquiring upon themes of homemaking and what it means for a place to be homely. When asking Clarke about her choices to work with non-traditional canvas material, she shared:
“I’ve always enjoyed painting mundane, “boring” subject matter that surrounds me in my everyday life, so I figured why not extend that to the materials I use? I find these bits and bobs such as cardboard, plastic, or fabric add more visual and textural interest as painting support than plain paper, wood, or stretched canvas as well as a bit of extra challenge when painting. My painting is always made up of layers that show through each other, so I love when the painting support adds to this with fun colours or textures. I feel that the materiality of a painting is as much, if not more, important than the subject matter at hand- a quality which starts with the painting support you choose to paint on. It’s also a lot cheaper and easier to source these materials, which thematically tie into the work, and I’d rather repurpose items that would otherwise be thrown away than buy brand new.”
Joy Clarke grew up in the hilly Lancashire countryside with her mother and two siblings. Her mother, who is also an artist, home educated her when she was a child, giving her an appreciation for self-sufficiency. Clarke stated:
“I feel where I grew up is a huge part of me and my work draws largely from my surroundings, especially relating to ideas of home; I often depict the things, places, and people in my life. I tend to snap quick pictures or sketches if something catches my eye that I think could make a good painting or be a good challenge to paint, so I have a collection of imagery to draw from for my paintings.”
Clarke now lives in Liverpool, after moving to study Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University in 2019. She tells me that she was inspired by the vibrance of the city of Liverpool. Her access to resources and guidance from her tutors at LJMU, has provided Clarke with an excitement to grow and develop her career here in this city.
Her painting of washing up liquid bottles is untitled, further emphasising the scenes mundaneness. The inserts of bright blue add an impression of wetness to the scene, indicating that the kitchen has just been home to a cleaning frenzy. Clarke explains to me the trial and error it has taken to find her preference for painting on fabrics:
“I found that priming the fabric with PVA and water first helps to stop the fabric just eating up the paint so you can get more sweeping brushstrokes which is especially useful for the sketching stage. I love painting on fabric, it is a great challenge, and they’re such compact objects that are easy to store and transport, as I can just fold them up and pop them in a bag, so I can work on a much larger scale than other painting supports.”
One of the most significant advantages of using acrylic paint is its fast-drying time. Unlike oil paints, which can take days or even weeks to dry, acrylics can dry within minutes or hours, depending on the thickness of which it had been applied and the humidity of the environment that it was left to dry in. This allows for artists, such as Clarke, to work spontaneously. They can layer colours and build sharp textures without having to wait extended period of time. Clarke demonstrates this spontaneity in her work, specifically her painting of a Carling can placed inside a mop bucket. She states:
“I love painting stuff that’s a bit daft and I feel like a lot of the subjects I choose are because they’re a bit silly. Art doesn’t need to take itself overly seriously and a bit of humour is fun. I like to hope it examples a gentle tenderness for ordinary moments of domesticity.”
She continues:
“My paintings tend to show evidence of human presence through moments of daily life, for example, kitchen counter still lives depicting a just-made cup of tea, potato peelings in front of the kettle where my mum has been cooking, or a neighbours discarded can of Carling in my parents mop bucket. All my paintings, be they still life, interior, or landscape can be considered a form of portraiture both of myself and also of my family.”
Clarke’s painting of a picnic blanket, Untitled (2022), had been created for the Convenience Gallery’s exhibition Not a Cloud in the Sky. The exhibition was held to honour Birkenhead Park’s 175th birthday, prompting artists to create pieces centred on the theme of ‘parks’. Clarke created a piece that encapsulated the British love of ‘picnicking.’ She used a picnic blanket as her canvas and painted classic picnic foods of sandwiches, fruit, and cakes. She recounts the experience of creating this piece:
“I only had a couple weeks to paint it, and this was while I was staying at my parents just before graduation, so I was painting on the floor all night long – very hard on my back but worth it.”
Clarke’s practice has been inspired by the gestural painterly styles of artists Tai-Shan Schierenberg, Jean Cooke, and previous art tutor Mark Edmundson. Clarke makes comment of Edmundson, expressing:
“I feel I can’t not mention the painter Mark Edmundson, who unfortunately doesn’t have much art posted online – he was my tutor in college and he really pushed me to do my best, improve as fast as I could and without his guidance, encouragement, and brutally honest (constructive) criticisms I wouldn’t be the painter I am today. I owe a lot to him as a mentor and artist.”
This painterly attitude is apparent throughout Clarke’s practice. Personally, I feel that this way of painting strengthens her efforts to romanticise the everyday. It generates marvellous shaping of the object, presenting a sense of familiarity that is hard to replicate without coming across as gritty and depressing.
“I would like for my work to inspire others to slow down and appreciate the little things more – find the beauty in the overlooked ‘boring’ stuff that surrounds us all the time.”
Clarke shared a similar statement, that she had taken inspiration from, made by Jean Cooke in 1993:
“If your mind is attuned to beauty, you find beauty in everything.”