Clifford How

Born 1974, Launceston, Tasmania

Lives & Works – Launceston (Tyerrernotepanner)

Clifford How's works meditate on the rugged identity and harsh weather systems of the Tasmanian wilderness. The artist gives significance to form through a palette knife, modelling this primal terrain with a known intimacy. From deep ancient tarns nestled in dolerite basins to exposed plateau sedge land, How’s paintings are suspended in time capturing the unseen and fleeting qualities of place. A restricted palette of mauve, grey-green, bone and black form the visual language of the works, becoming both surface and object: the textural surface of the paint is as much a part of the work as the image itself. Through the multitude of topographies tacitly evoked, the works conjure and clarify the emotion of experiencing these remote destinations.

Clifford How has practised as an artist for over eighteen years and his work has been exhibited extensively in Tasmania and in select exhibitions in Sydney. The recipient of the Hornsby Art Prize (2018), Wrest Point Art Award (2017) and TASART Award (2016), How was also a finalist in the Kings School Art Prize (2024), Calleen Art Prize (2017), Glover Art Prize (2017, 2016) and Paddington Art Prize (2016). In 2018, How's practice was featured in Amber Creswell Bell's 'A Painted Landscape – Across Australia from Bush to Coast' alongside other Australian landscape painters of note.