This Artist’s Vibrant Beachside Scenes Create Endless Summer
North Shore native Erin Clark’s paintings distill the pleasures of days by the shore.
Photo by Tracey Westgate Photography
On crisp fall afternoons and frigid winter mornings, it’s summertime inside Erin Clark’s studio. “Summer is the time of year that I feel the most myself,” the artist explains. “I’m always going back to this theme of summer and ocean and places I’d love to be. When it’s 30 degrees and snowing in New England, I’m often painting pools and beachside scenes.”
Clark grew up in Beverly, splashing in the shallows at West Beach and in the pool at her grandparents’ house down the street. Even as a kid, she loved art. “My mom used to have to peel me away from coloring just to eat something,” she says. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at MassArt and, at age 24, purchased Artcie, an art school in Hamilton that offers classes for kids and adults and doubles as her studio. She still lives in Beverly, a stone’s throw from West Beach, where she now brings her own kids.
Walks along the shore with her son helped inspire a shift in her art. “If a big wave would come, he’d be like, ‘Mom, look at that circle wave,’” Clark recalls. During the chaotic early years of parenthood, she made abstract work, often using a palette knife to layer paint and create precise lines. “That repetitive linear work brought me back to a total sense of calmness,” she explains. But then, in a series called “Circle Waves,” Clark brought those lines into conversation with curves for the first time.
In the years since, her brushwork has become freer, her subject matter more figurative—think coastal scenes, pools, gardens, and other sun-soaked settings designed for delight. Clark doesn’t sketch them in advance. Working on multiple canvases simultaneously, she moves from the table to the easel to the floor, letting color, memories, and upbeat music drive her. “I don’t like to overthink the subject matter,” she says. “It’s just what makes me happy.”
First published in the print edition of Boston Home’s Fall 2024 issue, with the headline “Sea Life.”
