Blue Estuary - The Dee

William Hannah Clarke was a trained dentist who practised in Glasgow. He had a passion for painting and attended evening classes at Glasgow School of Art. The receipt of a substantial inheritance permitted him to give up dentistry and move to Kirkcudbright in 1915, where he found conducive surroundings for a career change to art. In an article in The Studio magazine in 1916, the Kirkcudbright artist E.A.Taylor wrote "never have I known an artist who worked more assiduously early and late, not that his output is by any means prolific, but each new canvas when it emerges from his hands shows a marked technical and assured advance...Still in the springtime of life, many years it is hoped lie before him". Tragically, Clarke died as a result of an accident aged just 42.   This watercolour, perhaps a sketch for an intended oil, is reminiscent of the style and technique of E.A.Taylor, one of his mentors in Kirkcudbright. He was predominantly a landscape artist, and found many of his subjects on hte coast around Kirkcudbright.