Diamond Painting: John Clark

I started painting in pastel in 1985, as a natural progression from drawing, which I had practiced for as long as I can remember. Two years later, I moved to the Cayman Islands, where I lived with my family for fourteen years. The colors of the Caribbean stimulated my artistic senses and invited me to capture the turquoise sea and bright pink bougainvillea on paper and canvas. The Cayman Islands artistic community welcomed me, private collectors and institutions purchased my works, and I participated in many visual arts exhibitions and group shows, winning several awards. The Cayman Islands is a British Dependent Territory and my status within the artistic community gave me the opportunity and honor to meet members of the Royal Family.

I started using the acrylic towards the end of my stay in the Cayman Islands, and now that I live in England, I paint almost exclusively with this technique. Acrylics combine the strength of color with technical simplicity, and thanks to their durability, I know that when I ship originals around the world, they arrive in perfect condition.

One of the advantages to live in Europe is to be able to travel to countries like Italy and France. I feel lucky to have been able to paint a few pastoral scenes of Tuscany and Provence in between my more typically tropical works for Caribbean galleries and collectors in the United States.

In 2013 I started painting paint scenes of Kauai, to exhibit and sell them through the Palms Gallery. It was a great privilege for me to be selected to be the gallery's first international artist, and there can be no better inspiration for an artist than to have the most naturally beautiful landscapes on the planet as their subject matter, and a gallery in the middle of it all where his works can be exhibited and enjoyed. Today my days begin with a blank canvas in front of me and images of staggering waterfalls, rugged mountains, pristine beaches and swaying palm trees just waiting to be painted.