Fonds F3117 - Ann Clarke fonds

Clarke was born in Norwich, England and trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London University from 1962 to 1966. In her graduating year, she won the Slade Painting Prize. She immigrated to Canada in 1968 with her husband Phil Darrah, settling in Edmonton, Alberta, then the centre of formalist abstraction in western Canada. As Ann Clarke Darrah, she became a prominent member of the art scene in Western Canada. During these years she worked as a part time instructor of painting, drawing and basic design at the University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan, Red Deer College, Grant McEwan College, the Banff Centre and the Edmonton Public School Board Continuing Education Department.
Darrah and Clarke divorced in 1979 and in 1984, she moved from Alberta to Toronto. She lived in Toronto for a few years, teaching part-time at the University of Guelph, at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, and as adult art education co-ordinator at the Royal Ontario Museum. She moved to Tamworth near Kingston in 1987, taught at Queen’s University, St. Lawrence College and was Artistic Director of the Kingston Artists Association Inc. (now Modern Fuel). In 1992 she went to Thunder Bay to teach full-time in the Department of Visual Arts at Lakehead University. She taught Painting, Drawing, Basic Design and Major Studio. She was also Department Chair for several years, retiring as a full professor (Professor Emerita) in 2009. In 2013, Clarke returned to the Kingston area, to Newburgh, Ontario, where she and her son Ben Darrah opened an art centre.