Clarry Neame

Born in 1947, Clarry Neame grew up in Spring Creek, a small country village near the Wairau River in Marlborough, New Zealand. One of nine children, Clarry found his place and his self-expression through the love of drawing and painting as a young child of four years of age.

For three years, Clarry attended graphic art and design school at Wellington Polytechnic followed by a vibrant career spanning 25 years working in various aspects of the commercial art field. However, at the end of each working day he would always paint well into the night.

The transition to becoming a full-time artist came about when Clarry was at home helping raise their two daughters, Katy and Georgina, while pursuing a career as a freelance graphic artist. This period of time gave Clarry the impetus to paint fulltime. Clarry and his wife, Helen, decided to return to Marlborough in 1992, where Clarry took the plunge to become a fulltime professional artist and was an artist in residence at Hunter’s Winery from 1996 to 2020.

For Clarry, painting is a consuming and absorbing profession that started when he was just a small boy. His paintings are impressionist, a type of pointillism that conveys a feeling of excitement and visual stimulation. His paintings can be fully abstract or semi-abstract with partial scenes of flowers or landscapes. The impasto paint applied by both brush and palette knife create a textured surface that Clarry likens to sculpture in reverse. The texture is a main feature, and the eye attempts to take in every dot of colour and light, which leaves the viewer contemplating the depths of his works.