Clark Holmes Mcdougall

Place: St. Thomas

Born: 1921

Death: 1980

Biography:

Clark McDougall was a Canadian painter known for his black enamel style. He was born on November 21, 1921, in St. Thomas, Ontario, and died on August 17, 1980. Clark McDougall left high school at the age of 16 to pursue an artistic career. He taught himself proper technique from library books and sought advice from local artist William St. Thomas Smith. In 1950, he traveled to Montreal and Quebec City where he first experienced the paintings of Henri Matisse. By 1952-3 Clark was working as a “Fauve” painter, where his colours were intensely vivid and non-naturalistic. A coronary in 1957 forced Clark to paint from photographs in his studio. His painting style changed where the outline became very important to the structure and design of the painting. Clark’s unique “black enamel” style set him apart from other regional artists. His first exhibition of these “black enamel” paintings was in 1968 at the 20/20 Gallery, London. In 1976 the Volunteer Committee at the London Regional Art Gallery commissioned a painting, “Site”, to commemorate the building of the new gallery. In 1977 the Vancouver Art Gallery organized an exhibition “Clark McDougall: Paintings since 1953”. Regardless of the style, however, Clark had a highly individual way of interpreting his beloved landscape of North Yarmouth.