THE OCEAN ART

Luiz Fernando Clark was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and his relationship with the ocean started early in his life. He was just three years old when he started taking part on fishing trips on Rio's coast with both his grandfather and father. He begin on surfing at early age, a sport that has strengthened even more his passion for the sea.

His artistic verve started to show at the tender age of seven and his talent, combined with his entrepreneurial skills, led to his first business venture when he was 14 years old: selling t-shirts painted with airbrush and other techniques.  

Clark joined the Brazilian Fine Arts University in Rio, to learn and refine his techniques, which were at that point mostly self-taught.

His early venture experience came in handy when he joined the surf brand ENERGIA, one of the pioneering surfing brands in Brazil. His innovative painting style applied with airbrush on surf boards helped turn the brand into one of the most prominent in Brazil, exporting goods to California, Hawaii, Japan and Australia.

With his painting style recognized he was invited to adapt his creative designs and develop techniques to paint a new model of 28 feet Cigarette offshore style boat. It was the start of a long relationship with the yacht industry which took him across the world to work in places such as Viareggio, Italy and Cape Canaveral, Florida.

He lived in Viareggio, Italy more than one year, working in the construction of "Pillar Rossi", a mega yacht owned by Nelson Piquet - F1 champion in the 80s, and also working for other boatyards like CUV - Cantiere Uniti Viareggio and Perini Navi.

During the 1990s he carried on creating designs for several yacht companies, both in Brazil and in the US, and took part in the Miami Boat Show for the first time, where he met Guy Harvey and Al Barnes - two of the world's most renowned ocean fishing artists. In 1993 he started his own company, LF Clark Special Paintings.

He took a course of contemporary art with artist Daniel Senise at Parque Lage’s Art School (EAV) and started transferring to canvas his ocean views from diving and fishing trips recollections as well as his experiences from his years of working on the yacht industry.

His debut in the art world was in 1999 with his first individual exhibition in Rio de Janeiro and in the following years he went on to take part in several collective and individual shows both in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with his ocean art in original paintings and prints.

After 16 years of taking part on Boat Shows with his boat designs, he had his first chance to showcase his art at the Rio de Janeiro’s fair of 2002.

In 2005 and 2006 two of his paintings was selected by the Marlin Magazine Board of judges to feature in the magazine’s Art Gallery Issues, which encouraged him to take part in the Fort Lauderdale and Miami Boat Shows, amongst others, like the Dive Show in Palm Beach, Florida and his sea art was very well received by the American public. His art work has been on show in galleries in Miami, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Since then he has been working only by commission from clients in Brazil, Europe and in the US.