This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| The following biography, submitted October 2009, is from Jan Cass, daughter of the artist.
Born January 27, 1921 in Breckenridge, Texas as Margie Colleen Clancy,
she drew and painted her entire life and studied art at the University
of Texas in Austin for two years. However, she didn’t seriously
pursue art professionally until she was 50 years old. Her early
works were signed with the last name of her first husband,
Kralicek. When she remarried and became Margie Clancy Cherry, she
chose to use her maiden name, Clancy, as her first name and as her sole
name professionally.
Over the years, Clancy made many photographic safaris to Africa, India,
Costa Rica & Indonesia. Her photographs were her inspiration
as a wildlife artist. During this period, she became good friends
with Joy Adamson (Born Free) in Africa. (1) She also got to know
a number of wildlife preserve owners, most notably actors Tippi Hedron,
Amanda Blake, and James Brolin.
She created the tapestry technique described in Wildlife Art in
2001. Originally, the background was done in squares and
eventually went to free form background paintings surrounding a central
subject.
However, Clancy is primarily known as a realistic wildlife portrait
artist, especially the big cats and painted primarily with
acrylics. The bulk of her works were done while living in
California and Washington prior to moving to Arizona. She was
also extremely prolific having painted well over 2,000 works during her
35 year professional career.
Clancy succumbed to cancer at the age of 88. She died October 17, 2009 in Sun City West, Arizona.
(1) Joy Adamson, an artist in her own right, called Clancy "The
greatest living painter of big cats in the world". Pretty high
praise from one who raised and lived with such animals.
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These Notes from AskART represent the beginning of a possible future biography for this artist. Please click here if you wish to help in its development:
| Clancy Cherry paints in a style she calls tapestry. Her main
subject, which she paints in oil, is complimented with a background
painted in acrylics of many smaller paintings which relate to the
subject.
The background effect is similar to a patchwork quilt.
Source:
Wildlife Art, July/August 2002 |
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