Margery Clarke @ Southampton City Art Gallery

Still hanging around: paintings from 1956 to the present, is an exhibition of paintings by Hilda Margery Clarke to celebrate her 90th year. She was born in Manchester and learnt to paint through the guidance of L.S. Lowry, with whom she remained life-long friends until his death in 1976. She moved to Southampton in 1954 and studied drawing under the excellent tuition of Peter Folkes at Southampton Art College. Clarke has remained an important part of the City’s art scene ever since, exhibiting work at her home in Bitterne from 1968, before establishing ‘The First’ Gallery in 1984. Subject matter for her work includes the world around us and beyond, glimpsed and imagined, interpreted with compassion and warm humour, evident is her interest in people. The exhibition is accompanied by a small display of works from the collection by artists that have inspired Clarke, including L.S. Lowry and Richard Eurich.