Dr. Peter Clarke, writer, poet and artist was born on 2nd June 1929 in Cardiff Road, (The Kloof), Simons Town. Peter was one of six children. As a little boy, Peter attended Sunday School at St.Francis Church and was a pupil from Grade 1 to Grade 4 at the Anglican Church Boys Mission School in St. Georges Street. Thereafter, he attended Arsenal Road Second from Grade 5 to Grade 6.

In 1944 Peter Clarke Travelled by train to Livingstone High School in Claremont where he completed Grade 9. At the end of the year, aged 15, Peter went to work in the Naval Dockyard where he performed various duties.

Peter’s art training began with evening classes, firstly at St. Philip’s School in District Six in 1947, and then at the Technical College, Cape Town, in 1948. From 1950 to 1952 he was a member of a group of amateur artists who worked together on Saturday Afternoons.

After working long labour days Peter felt that he needed a change and decided to focus on becoming an artist. Frustrated, he left the Dockyard in 1956, intending to devote at least three months to art before looking for fulltime employment again. Upon experiencing life as a freelance, he avoided full-time employment, but it was not easy. He improvised, occassionaly modelling life drawing classes, working as a part-time shepherd and as a display artist for Rondevlei Bird Sanctuary.

A friend arranged for him to travel and stay in Tesserlaarsdal, a village situated within Caledon, where he would live with a family friend. Subsequently, this little town gave him the peace and serenity he was looking for to create his art works and in 1957 he held his first solo exhibition at the Golden City Post. At the age of 27 he decided that it was best for him to become an artist full-time. 

In 1966, his household received a letter stating that they would be removed to Ocean View, with many of their neighbours having already left the area at this time, due to the 1951 Groups Area Act. Consequently, both of these communities where he grew up and lived in (Simons Town and Ocean View) played a role in inspiring the types of artwork he painted, with many of his family and friends having had his artwork displayed within their homes.

Most of his paintings are of landscapes and seascapes, which represented a sense of liberation as his art had always been a space of such expressions of freedom for Peter himself.

Peter studied graphic art for 3 months under Katrine Harries at Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1961. During 1962- 1963, Peter studied at the Rijks Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, and worked at a graphic art workshop, Atelier Nord, in Oslo from 1978 to 1979.Peter’s work has been represented in many solo and group exhibitions in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya,Europe, USA, South America, Israel, Japan, and Australia. Peter’s work can be located in many prestigious collections around the world.Through the years Peter Clarke has illustrated a number of books published in South Africa, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Nigeria, England, and the USA. In 1965, he was awarded the CP Hoogenhout Award for his illustration of “Snoet Alleen” by Freda Linda.

Peter is also known as a published South African poet with a number of readins in South Africa and internationally. In 1995, he won the DRUM International Short story Award and was elected Academico Onorario of Acamedia Fiorentia della Arti del Disegno , Florence, Italy, and Honorary Fellow in writing at the University of Iowa.

In 2005, Peter Clarke received the Order of Ikhamanga by President Thabo Mbeki, with both his writing and artworks collectively garnering 27 international awards.

Compiled by Fawziyah Khan

Edited by Simon’s Town Museum

 

Reference List

Sahistory.org.za. 2011. Peter Clarke | South African History Online. [online] Available at: <https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/peter-clarke> [Accessed 16 March 2021].

Lee, D. and Clarke, P., 2008. Peter Clarke. Gallo Manor, South Africa: Awareness Pub.

The Simons Town Museum Archive of Peter Clarke