Michael Spafford (b. 1935) has been a major force in the Northwest art community as a painter and printmaker since the 1960’s.  Influenced by his studies in art history at Harvard University, (particularly of the epics), and later by the muralists while he lived in Mexico, his emphasis has been on Greco-Roman mythology as an avenue of expression about contemporary culture.  He continually finds new inspiration and perspectives for fresh imagery, resulting in extended series for The Labors of Hercules, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other mythologies surrounding Europa, and Romulus and Remus. Visually the figures are compressed into two dimensions, with no modeling, turning them into flat forms and patterns, stylized to the point of abstraction.

Michael Spafford’s work will be the subject of three different and concurrent gallery exhibitions in Seattle.  Davidson Galleries is proud to be part of the Epic Works project, along with Greg Kucera Gallery and Woodside/Braseth Gallery.  Each will focus on different mythologies or mediums.  Davidson Galleries will present  Spafford’s large scale original prints.

Exhibition Opening: April 5th, 6-8 PM - Artist will be in attendance from 6-6:45 PM during the opening.

Artist walk through: Saturday, April 21st, 2-3 PM.

ONLINE EXHIBITIONS are short term, changing exhibitions of available inventory that are not currently displayed on the gallery walls. Usual duration, two weeks.

Clare Veronica Hope Leighton (1898-1989)

Clare Leighton was born in London to two fiction writers, serialized scenario and Melodrama writer Marie Connor and Robert Leighton who wrote adventure stories for boys.  Her early education was private but she later studied at the Brighton School of Art and later the Slade School.  Most importantly, however, was her introduction to wood engraving through Noel Rook at the Central School of Art and Design in 1922.  Little more than a year later she exhibited with the Society of Wood Engravers along with many established engravers including Eric Gill, Robert Gibbings, and John Nash.  Her work led to collaborations with writers such as Thornton Wilder and Thomas Hardy.  Between 1930 and 1976 she authored and illustrated 15 books, most of which were devoted to nature or the occupations of ordinary workers.

After a visit to the United States in 1939 she decided to live first on Long Island, then Maryland, North Carolina, and finally as a new U.S. citizen (as of 1945), Woodbury, Connecticut.  She proved multi talented earning commissions for stained-glass windows for New England churches and Cathedrals, ceramic plate designs for Wedgwood and glass pieces for Steuben.  She was also the designer for her own home in Woodbury.

Leighton’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum, Boston Public Library, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, British Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Fogg Museum at Harvard, Library of Congress, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum, National Gallery of Canada, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.