Marston Clough — Artist’s Statement

Studio: Vineyard Haven, MA
Born: MA | USA

My first art classes were at the Tisbury School in the early 1950’s and more than thirty years later I took a drawing course at the Massachusetts College of Art and loved it. I continued to draw something every day, for a year.  Drawing still comes first for me and I generally have a sketchbook handy, making small sketches while riding the ferry, or around the docks in Vineyard Haven, where I grew up

I began taking a variety of courses at the Worcester Art Museum, experimenting with various media and techniques. I repeated etching and printmaking several times and bought an etching press. Etching was a logical combination of my drawing and my technical (teaching high school chemistry) interests.   Monotypes, another printmaking process, allow looser, more spontaneous and more immediate results than etchings, woodcuts or linotypes.

After taking an oil painting class at the Worcester Art Museum – at that time my printmaking area was too cold to work in – I began working more in oils and this has become my primary medium, painting both real and imagined Island landscapes.

Although I do enjoy working outside, “en plein air”, most of my work is done in my studio on Martha’s Vineyard.

I find making art a challenge, so I am pleased when I like the result, more pleased if my wife likes it, or if someone verifies the result with a purchase.

I exhibit at MVAA Old Sculpin Gallery at the town wharf in Edgartown, at Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs, and at Galaxy Art Gallery in Oak Bluffs, as well as Gallery Sitka in Shirley, on the mainland.

Further examples may be seen at Rockfish Restaurant, and two are in the Permanent Collection at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.

I regularly donate art to fundraisers for causes and organizations that I support such as Windemere, MV Shellfish Group, Featherstone Center for the Arts, and the Chicken Alley Art Show.