(Above: Detail from one of Karin Clarke’s paintings from northern Italy, included in her new show, Karin Clarke: Small Oils of Italy; photos by Randi Bjornstad)

By Randi Bjornstad

Margaret Coe and her late husband, Mark Clarke, have been big names in the Eugene-area art world for decades. However, it’s less well-known that their daughter, proprietor of the Karin Clarke Gallery in downtown Eugene, also has both a flair and a penchant for creating her own paintings.

Karin Clarke sketched or painted many landscapes during a recent trip to northern Italy that included the city of Varenna, titled Varenna View #2

The proof comes in a show called “Karin Clarke: Small Oils of Italy” that will be on display at the gallery through July 21, consisting of nearly two dozen pieces resulting from two trips the daughter and mother took to Italy in 2017 and 2018.

The show also includes some holdover paintings from Oregon artist Robert Schlegel’s June exhibit — “It was so well-received I wanted to keep a few pieces up,” Clarke said — as well as a small number of works by both her parents and another local artist, Bets Cole.

“My mom and I have gone together on ‘painting tours’ to Venice, Varenna, and Florence,” Clarke said as she took a break from putting up the show. “At the end of our trip this year, my mom stayed in Italy, and I went on to Paris for a few days and also did some painting there.”

So, although the show calls out Italy in its title, it also includes a handful of other works done in Paris and even one ocean scene from Carmel, Calif.

Capturing the buildings and bridges of Venice, Italy, on a recent trip was a source of special satisfaction to artist Karin Clarke

The exhibit also helps answer a question Clarke said she frequently gets from visitors to the gallery: “Do you paint?”

She feels a bit nervous, but also excited, at this display of her recent work.

“Years and years ago, I had a show of my parents’ work in the main part of the gallery, and I also put up just a few of my own in the back room, and one other time I had a few pieces in a show of my mom’s work,” Clarke recalled. “But then I started the gallery and had kids, and my own painting wasn’t the priority.”

It’s been just in the last couple of years that she’s gone back to taking her own painting prowess seriously.

“So this is really different,” Clarke said with a laugh. “This is the first time the lettering I put up by paintings in a show has my own name on it.”

The pieces in the show show a variety of approaches as she finds her own artistic self again.

The balance of detail and impression is a challenge for painters working on location, artist Karin Clarke said

“Some of them I painted completely on location, and some I started and then finished later in the studio,” she said. “Those have a different feel — they have more precise details.”

She’s especially pleased with one of the Paris paintings that she did “en plein air,” capturing several classic French buildings with a tree with lush spring foliage in the foreground.

“I was hoping to gain confidence in my ability to do painting on location — it’s a challenge for me to include enough detail so that the scene is convincing but not so tightly worked, so it leaves more room for imagination and interpretation,” she said. “I feel the paintings from this last trip are a real leap for me.”

Not only artistically, of course.

“I’m also happy with them because they have really wonderful memories attached,” Clarke said.

Karin Clarke: Small Oils of Italy

When: Through July 21; artist’s reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 6

Where: Karin Clarke Gallery, 760 Willamette St. in downtown Eugene

Regular gallery hours: Noon to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, or by appointment

Information: 541-684-7964 or karinclarkegallery.com