RETROSPECTIVE MARIE CLARE – LISA CLARE

Throughout the whole gallery, this retrospective exhibition – which embraces a number of different styles and approaches within the medium of paint – lovingly celebrates the lives, legacies and dual artistic visions of mother and daughter Marie Clare and Lisa Clare.

Lisa Clare

Contemporary Artist

28 July 1965 — 27 May 2002

Genuinely creative, Lisa loved dancing, sharing party time adventures with her friends of whom there were plenty, and she was known for zipping about Havelock North in the late 1980s and 90s in her stand-out dazzling purple Ford Escort.

Lisa enjoyed travelling and often reflected on her Tasmania travels, pursuing life with an artistic aesthetic. Lisa attending Art School at Unitec in Auckland in the late 1990s. An attentive artist, she completed her studies and remained living there in Ponsonby embarking on her professional career.

Across all her works is a quirky line, often singular with pared back markings of colour, uniformly creating a signature styling. Their simplicity unmasks a considered approach both open and reachable with strong holdings. These are emotional expressions framed around themes of feminine identity, and self-exploration. Key motives repeat across her various series of works such as what one wears. For example, high heel shoes, representative of female power and poise, and how to stand and expose in the world, includes aspects of control and freedom to walk ones walk how one wishes. 

Lisa was an artist’s artist. Her edgy designs would carry a message to those who had the same experiences she had. Like her Mum, her art came from her inner spirit and was ahead of its time.

Marie Clare

New Zealand Contemporary Artist

5 May 1943 — 23 November 2008

Marie Clare was a contemporary New Zealand artist well regarded across Hawke’s Bay and much of New Zealand in the 1980s – 1990s. She was an active member of Keirunga Arts community. Marie exhibited on many occasions with fellow artists we continue to appreciate today.

As the great-granddaughter of Edward Henry Holder (1847 – 1922) of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Marie was born into an artistic family, with her father Angus Holder and grandfather Henry Holder also lesser-known for art and photography works.

Marie was a true colourist, if she happened upon a blank surface, it was often painted or stained with an array of colours splashing brightness everywhere. Bold and vivacious, Marie Clare’s disposition was much alike her artworks; fun, enthused and with a vigour for creating beauty across all areas of living. 

Her lively sense of colour demonstrates an intimate bond with her work. An ability to move with such freedom between styles and flexibility to paint with watercolour, pastels or mixed media allowed Marie to produce some truly wonderful works. Marie was inspired by the works of Monet with his use of colour and light and demonstrated this at every opportunity.

Marie loved to take risks with her art. She was about drawing out an inner emotion by painting colour and light to create form that would capture the admirer. She loved to quote Mark Rothko “The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.”

Tutored by Hawke’s Bay artist and teacher Frank Bacon, she went on to tutor her own classes for U3A and private classes in her home studio.