Clyde Mann
Acrylic
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Biography
My first career was as a hairdresser. After about 20 years, I changed direction completely. I went back to school, got a Master’s degree in Computer Science and retired as Operations Manager for mainframe computing at the information center for Wake County NC. Now I have changed my focus to Art. I have always had the urge. One of my first memories was sitting with my father while we drew pictures together. We had no art taught in our small rural community school when I was growing up. All the drawing I did was for my own amusement. When I was about 22 years old I took a class in oils & got excited about learning how to paint. So…. Since there was no local avenue for art classes, I enrolled in a correspondence course with the Washington School of Art. (I still have the books!) Well, life got in the way & I never finished. I put all my creative energies into creating the outlandish hairstyles of the 60’s.
Since retiring I have taken several drawing classes at community colleges in North Carolina & Florida, a summer with a private teacher & a number of workshops. Mostly I have read books looked at DVDs, online videos and worked on my own. My work is realistic and usually taken from nature. I am inspired by natural beauty, light & shadow. For a while I tried to capture it with photography, but it never looked like what I saw. I work in acrylic & color pencil. So when I see something beautiful I sometimes try to capture what I see & feel about it with paint. I keep trying.
