Interview with an Artist: San Francisco Portrait Painter, Tom Clark
Background and inspiration behind Tom Clark’s art and career as a portrait painter in San Francisco
Recently, I asked longtime friend and portrait artist Tom Clark if he would share some of his approach to art, from both a personal and historical perspective. I met Tom when I was quite small (that’s me in the painting below with my granddad, Donald Teague), and we’ve since stayed in touch to talk art (and sometimes politics) at cafes in San Francisco whenever he can be dragged away from the easel.
Here’s what we discussed.
Bryan Kitch:
How do you approach portrait painting from a historical perspective? That is, who are your most important influences in portrait painting and what have you learned from them?
Tom Clark:
Really good question! Very early, in junior high, like a lot of boys, I liked to draw things like jet fighters, cars, and animals. My aunt thought I had talent, gave me a book of classical paintings, and I became fascinated with the realism of Renaissance portraits from the likes of Leonardo and Botticelli, and later, impressionists Manet and Monet, and tried to learn their techniques for capturing lifelike qualities. My parents found a professional artist who gave portrait lessons and he let me join the adult class he taught, even though I was only 12. I learned basic perspective and principles of color mixing, also painted landscapes, but have always been fascinated with the unique and endless challenge and subtlety of portraiture, to capture personality, character and style.
Commissions and collectors of Tom Clark’s work include:
-Nevada Governor, Michael O’ Callaghan
-William Clay Ford, Jr, Chairman, Ford Motor Company
-United States Senator, Diane Feinstein
I like to present a person as others know them to be, at their best. (But not better.)
BK:
So, how do you feel about the evolution of representative art and why do you think that there will always be an important place for it even as contemporary art follows a different trajectory?
TC:
While I have dabbled in abstraction I think the human form and expression are the most emotionally evocative images to most people, and the most challenging to capture well. I think most people agree; the world’s only billion-dollar painting being a commissioned portrait of a young lady painted by Leonardo da Vinci more than 500 years ago. I think representational art will always go in and out of style, but think the human form and natural landscape represent our greatest appreciation of beauty, with their infinite changes of color, light, and shape.
BK:
How do you think the Internet and digital art will play a role in the future? Do you also see a certain ‘sameness’ that can creep into artistic expression, just as one ‘hip’ coffee shop in New York might look just like another in Buenos Aires?
TC:
There will always be new styles and tools like computers in the arts, but I doubt that human nature has changed in the thousands of years since the Greeks expressed it so well through their arts. This Greek expression of the power and grace of human nature survived the Dark Ages and was revived by the Renaissance. We will always celebrate our humanity through new media and materials, but novelty will never change our inherent nature, which we will always be driven to celebrate in the arts.
“Great artists in any field are those who can successfully and powerfully express universal truths about nature, and human nature in particular, which move most people.”
I think people always have and always will intrinsically enjoy seeing representations of the power and beauty of natural imagery, including the human form regardless of changing art styles and new forms of media.
BK:
What do you think are some of the most important things for an artist to learn when developing skills? What are the foundations of a great artist?
TC:
Ideally artists should be inner-driven from an early age to express imagery which they themselves enjoy seeing and feeling. And when that is the case, the enjoyment and satisfaction of seeing your creation take place makes the requisite effort of learning techniques relatively easy and enjoyable.
Great artists in any field are those who can successfully and powerfully express universal truths about nature, and human nature in particular, which move most people.
BK:
Also, how have clients approached portraits when working with you? Do they often have something specific in mind? Has the portrait client changed significantly over the course of your career?
TC:
Most of my clients very naturally want to see the authentic and positive qualities of the subject I am being commissioned to paint, be it their child, spouse, parent, pet, or friend. If I present the subject at their authentic best and most characteristic self, they seldom want me to flatter them. Capturing this authenticity quickly in often limited time requires a portrait artist to be naturally perceptive and observant of personality, and be trained to present the subject with a certain degree of physical accuracy. I think most parents will always want a portrait of their child to remember the unique and all-too-fleeting charm of that childhood, or perhaps to remember a parent or spouse. They feel that an organic, hand-painted portrait can often do that better than a photograph.
BK:
Why did you settle in San Francisco, and how has being a portrait artist on the West Coast shaped your career? How has the artistic landscape shifted here?
TC:
I lived in Carmel for a few years, showing my landscapes in several prominent galleries and doing portraits there, but I came to miss the events and artistic opportunities of a big city like San Francisco. Traditional representational art hasn’t been trendy with galleries here in recent years, but i sense an upswing now.
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Thanks very much to Tom for the interview! If you have questions for Tom, or would like to get in touch to discuss a portrait for a friend or loved one, please don’t hesitate to reach out — the best way to reach him is via the Contact page here on my website, or Instagram. All images © Tom Clark.
This was originally published to Tom Clark’s official website, tomclarkportraits.com.
