Colin Clark – a bit about me.

I was lucky enough to have lived in Zimbabwe for two and a half years back in 1980. This for me is where I began my interest in art.

After what can be best described as being one of the best times of my life, I returned to England in 1983.

Life in Zimbabwe

Chiredzi (where I lived most in Zimbabwe), is a small town located in the south east of the country called the Lowveld.

At the age of 19, I worked as a mechanic at a local garage called Bob Hayward Motors. This was a fantastic experience as at the time I was interested in mechincs, but the best part was been thrown in a the deep end. I have worked on stuff from huge ‘Daff’ and ‘Oshkosh’ trucks, replacing gearboxes and pistons, to old lister engines used in some cases for generating power, and in others as pumps supplying water for cattle. I even flew in a light aircraft to deliver one of these engines to some very remote place (which I can’t remeber the name of now), but it was a great experience.

Anyhow on most evenings after work, I visited the Planters Inn (the local pub) and played the one and only video game – but hey it was Space invaders!. I was very proud to have achieved over 10,000 points!
After that and cooling off in the pool, I spent a lot of evenings drawing which, just copying from imported South African Magzines, scenes and people etc.

On returning to the UK I continued to draw and in time I used pastles, ink, watercolour gouache and latterly oils.

While in the Zimbabwe I was able to visit Victoria falls, Lake Kariba, the Eastern Highlands (which is just sooo very much like Scotland) and many other places in the country. Since returning back to the UK for good in 1983, I have been back for holidays a number of times, to catch up with my family who were still living there at the time, and visit the falls and Kariba again. All this happened prior to the rest of my family returning some 9 years ago now, and just as well it seems with the country now falling apart at the seams… which is a great great shame for the people of Zimbawe living there today.

Living in Zimbabwe is something that I will be with me forever. I feel that I grew up living there, not in the sense of being brought up, but learning about life and experiencing Africa.

If anyone you know that has visited Africa (It is a big country, but In this context I am saying in general) and says to you that it has a certain magic, then they are quite right… it does (well for me anyhow and Zimbabwe).

What makes Africa ‘Africa’.

For me… it is combination on a number of things:

The wonderful people
The heat and the emptiness
The smell and sounds of Africa… I’m talking about the Weather, Nature, Wildlife, and open fires.