woodezine - Volume III - Issue III - March 2005

Carver of the Month
Sponsored by The CanvasGoods Shop Apron

Arthur H. Clark

He can't swim, so he has never seen the Great Barrier Reef up close. Yet Arthur "Nobby" Clark has spent the past fifteen years creating a replica of the Reef... in wood! The project is called "Denizens of the Deep".

To gain a more complete understanding of the scope of his work, please visit his Web site at the address shown below.
Arthur H Clark was born in 1924, in Blandford Forum, in the county of Dorset, England. He migrated to Australia with his family in 1963 and became an Australian citizen in 1981. Arthur left school in 1938 when he was 14 years old and started an Engineering Apprenticeship. He left this in September 1939 to volunteer for the merchant Navy.  
 

After demobilization at the end of the war, he went back to the trade and worked in the engineering industry in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, until he retired in 1983 at the age of 59. Arthur has dabbled in the crafts of wood-turning and cabinetmaking from the age of thirteen. However, in rediscovering these craft skills in more recent times, he felt that he needed to work more creatively.

With its vivid colors and netherworld atmosphere, this close-up of the Reef (below) feels as much like a Van Gogh painting as it does a wooden carving...

On retiring, Arthur decided to try his hand at wood carving and enrolled at the Bundaberg TAFE College (Australia) for two seasons, to learn the basic skills. He drifted away from traditional carving styles fairly quickly and started experimenting with 'freeform' wood sculplture.

 
 

In 1993, Arthur's Denizens of the Deep appeared in Chip Chats, the journal of the National Woodcarvers Association. In 1996, it made the cover of Practical Wood Working in the UK. Since then it has graced the pages of the Official Journal of the Guild of Master Craftsmen in Britain, and his work has been featured in "Understanding Woodcarving in the Round", from Woodcarving Magazine.

At left, Arthur guides the setup for an exhibition of his work in Australia.
The entire collection is available for exhibit, and possibly even for sale. See the contact information below to book a museum or other venue.



Contact the Artist

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