Artist brings adventure to canvas

Clarke Berryman is a man in his early 80s who jokes that he doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. Hearing about his life so far, it's plain to see he hasn't been spending much time in a recliner watching other people lead adventurous lives. He's traveled around the world to African nations, India, and South America. His paintings and photographs are a stunning collection of beauty found in animals around the world.

Photo by Katy Yoder

Clarke Berryman at work in his studio in Sage Meadow.

His life began in Montana where he was raised on a cow/calf operation. Suffice to say, his horizons have broadened professionally and academically. After completing his undergraduate work at Montana State in Bozeman, Berryman pursued a Masters in reproductive physiology at Colorado State in Fort Collins.

"I was born and raised on a ranch in Butte, Montana, and was a working cowboy for a lot of years," said Berryman in his Sisters art studio. "I wanted to be a veterinarian since I was a kid. I started out in reproductive physiology, which related to breeding cattle, because I needed to know where hormones came from. As I got more and more into it, reproductive physiology became sort of an endocrinology thing. I started studying hormones seriously and understood a little neuroanatomy and neurophysiology."

Eventually, Berryman transferred to a neuroanatomy and neurophysiology masters. After he graduated from vet school, he applied to Cornell University where he could study with a leading veterinary neurologist. He was accepted. His proclivity for science was complimented by his love of drawing.

"From the time I was a little kid I wanted to draw and did all the time. But I never painted. I did a lot of drawing in veterinary school. My notes were always in demand because I drew everything in color," he said laughing. "I'd look at tissue in a microscope and draw it all in color. My classmates wanted to borrow my notes."

In 1972, when he was ready to open a practice, Berryman and his late wife, Patricia, moved to Oregon to be close to her family. At first, he started out with a large animal practice, but an injury sustained when he rode bucking horses as a kid resulted in severe back pain. Berryman switched his practice to veterinary neural surgery. The attention to detail required for a surgeon came easily to Berryman and was mirrored in the detailed line drawings he created. His understanding of the anatomy of an animal or human made him an exacting artist.

Moving to Sisters from their home in Woodburn came about after Berryman and his daughter came over to Central Oregon on a business call. He had several other companies, including a real estate company that built schools, veterinary clinics, and medical centers. During their trip to Prineville, they had time to look at real estate in the area. Nothing attracted him in Bend or Redmond but when he saw a house in Sisters, suddenly he knew it was where he wanted to be. He bought the house in 2010 and he and Patricia moved to Sage Meadow.

After retiring from his other professional endeavors, Berryman got into fine art painting. Berryman had an impressive collection of photographs taken during the couple's travels. He describes his painting genre as classical realism. He's studied with contemporary American artists and has received awards for his work.

"You don't have to wonder what you're looking at when you view my art. I paint what I see. From being a surgeon, I'm a perfectionist. I don't know if I became a good surgeon because I was into art, or I became an artist because I was a trained surgeon on the spinal cord and brain," he said.

Photo by Katy Yoder

Wildlife themes are strong in Clarke Berryman's work.

After his wife died, he found some old photos of her, like one in Petra, Jordan, where she was riding a camel. He decided to take the image of her on the camel and alter it to have her riding through Africa.

"I wasn't doing particularly well at the time. I was really missing her," he recalled. "It was a highly emotional experience painting her. That time was bittersweet because certain memories would come back that I didn't particularly want, but there were also times when some wonderful memories would come back. I relished them. It took me years to work through the loss. Part of me went on that canvas along with her."

Traveling in remote wild places are memories Berryman will always cherish. With his camera at the ready, he was happy to venture into dangerous territory to get a perfect shot. He had a guide in Uganda who suggested he see over a million migrating wildebeests. The wildebeests were accompanied by thousands of elephants and zebras. On the periphery of the massive herd were predators trying to get the sick or the young.

"The migration from Tanzania is a continuous circle following the grass. We came upon elephants in a sea of wildebeests. We came around a corner and saw elephants stopping to drink. I took a lot of photographs. I love animals whether it's a zebra or a giraffe or whatever. Painting is a way to relive that experience watching the elephants. When I'm on safari, I'm with one guide and no other visitors, so I can watch the animals as long as I want. There was an emotional component with that picture of those animals stopping to drink and cool off. I was in the situation... in the zone... a part of it."

When asked how it feels to be near formidable animals, Berryman recalls a few times when it wasn't until later that he realized he'd been closer than he should have been.

"I'm not scared of predators or gorillas," he said. "I am so adrenalized from being in the situation that there's absolutely no fear. A couple of times when I got home, I'd think that was really stupid. A jaguar photo I took and later painted, was from a river in Brazil, I was in a little wooden canoe with a guide. The jaguar was on the bank, not that far from us. I was elated that I could be there. As I painted it and got to thinking, I could have been his lunch. He could have easily jumped 25 feet or swam to the boat. I was so involved there was no fear."

No longer showing his work in a gallery, Berryman uses his studio as a little gallery where people are welcome to come and visit him. He still has some images that are for sale and he's open to doing commissions. He enjoys taking part in the Artist Studio Tour sponsored by Sisters Arts Association. He and his new wife, Lyda, enjoy visitors and they say his coffee pot is always on and he paints seven days a week.

Currently dealing with an illness, Berryman reiterates that he's not afraid of death.

"I have a condition called Pancreatic IPMN and I'm a diabetic on top of it," he said. 'But I'm alive and I can still paint. I've led an absolutely blessed life. And I haven't told you half the things I've done. I'm a committed Christian, I put a lot of credit to that. Even when I went through trials and tribulations, like we all go through, I was able to accept it and deal with it. Attitude is everything."

Berryman can be reached at 503-989-3059.