About
C l i v e P o w s e y, v i s u a l a r t i s t, 1 9 7 6 - 2 0 2 4
I was born in Ashford, Kent, U.K., 1958, emigrated to Canada in 1969, and trained in drawing, painting and printmaking in Fine Arts at The Ontario College of Art from 1976 to 1980 spending the fourth and final year in an off-campus program in Florence, Italy. I lived and worked as a fine and applied visual arts in Toronto and regions until 2004 at which time I moved to Vancouver Island continuing to exhibit fine art and work remotely on animation projects.
As well as regular solo exhibitions with galleries group exhibitions included International Waters (1991) with members of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, the American Watercolour Society, and The Royal Watercolour Society. The show travelled to Toronto, New York and London. My watercolours won awards, including the D.L. Stevenson Award for Excellence (2009) at the CSPWC annual Open Waters exhibition, and Best Watercolour (1999) at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.
I worked in animated film and television for large companies such as Nelvana Ltd. and Walt Disney Animation Canada and also freelance for small studios such as Chuck Gammage Animation, The Animation House, and Red Rover Studios.
I worked occasionally as an art instructor for courses and workshops. I taught courses in drawing and painting in the Fine Arts Department at the Ontario College of Art (1988-92), and background painting and design at Max the Mutt Animation School (1999-2003) in Toronto. In later years I taught courses in drawing and rendering and design fundamentals in the Metal Jewelry Design Certificate Program at North Island College in Campbell River BC.
I attended art college at a time when deciding to become a visual artist was a path less traveled and required an irrational passion, perversity, stupidity, recklessness and a willingness to avoid life's more favorable and lucrative outcomes. I nevertheless received from the art college a first, and significant, installment in the skills (most particularly to be able to draw well) required to become a working visual artist. I was fortunate to live at a time when the results of years of training were still a valued and recognized 'commodity currency' of demonstrable skills, distinct from the contemporary 'fiat currency' of academic credentials that now seem most essential by far. Attending an 'arts and craft' art college felt comfortable with my working class background and I had the good fortune to enjoy several decades as a working artist.
In the 'later' part of a working life I've organized and edited this website accordingly, creating a few portfolios of a few selected works that I still find fairly competent and representative in terms of content. I have a small printing press and continue to make intaglio prints, some of which might be added to the portfolios occasionally. I now live between Desolation Sound and Forbidden Plateau on Vancouver Island, and as I find myself looking back more than forward, I would retrospectively describe my occupational life as that of someone skilled in delineation describing form for various purposes.
Clive Powsey, 2024
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