Plein Air Artist Demonstration with Jim Clark
Saturday, October 4, 2025 | 2:30 - 4:30p | Mertes slough landing
Minnesota artist, Jim Clark, will be doing a live demonstration of his work at Mertes Slough Landing, just over the bridge to Wisconsin. This demonstration is outdoors, free, and open to the public to watch or to paint along.
This plein air artist demonstration is part of the Minnesota Marine Art Museum’s Upper Mississippi Plein Air Experience: Boats, Bridges, and Backwaters, a weekend of workshops, exhibitions, presentations, and public programs in Winona, MN. Now in its third year, the Upper Mississippi Plein Air Experience brings together two creative communities committed to making artwork out of doors: today’s urban sketchers and traditional plein air painters. Staged from MMAM, known for its stunning location on the Mississippi River in Southeast Minnesota’s Driftless Region and a world-class art collection, the Upper Mississippi Plein Air Experience is quickly becoming the fall destination for painters and sketchers alike.
Location
Mertes Slough Landing
WI-54 Trunk
Fountain City, WI 54629
About the artist
Jim Clark lives and works in Hopkins, Minnesota. He was born and raised in an interstitial space, a pocket universe between the IDS building and Amber Waves of Grain. He grew up in the wilds of Minnetonka where great mares once ran free, Dead Man’s Hill swallowed sleds, and the Swamp and Woods held great treasure. The woods and swamp have shrunk, fully plundered. The hill has been capped with gardens and Dishes. And the horses have scattered west and east, north and south.
Wilderness, and the waters within, have been a source of inspiration since childhood. He spent his teen years paddling in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario, and his twenties living in Fairbanks, Alaska. His trekking there included the Wrangells, Brooks, and Alaska ranges. His favorite wilderness is the Boundary Waters, where he uses a paddle or canoe hull as drawing boards.
He received his undergraduate art degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, an MFA at Vesper College, in addition to study at Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne and at the Academie de Port-Royal in Paris. JIM A. CLARK
