Story

I paint the way places stay in memory.

Not quite how they looked. How they felt a little later, once the weather had moved on.

1

Born by the sea

I was born in the south of England, and its coast has never quite left the work.

Woolacombe beach, rock pools, a grandmother and a child crab-fishing, a bucket and spade: they still come back in the paintings, usually a little warmer than everything else.

Woolocomb Beach, watercolour by Ian Clements
Woolocomb Beach Watercolour

2

A valley in Switzerland

Now I live in Engelberg, deep in Central Switzerland, with Titlis above the village. It has become home: the cross-country tracks, the Fellenrüti, Beat’s Hof, the Langlöifer out on the tracks.

The village gave me its words as well as its views, which is why some of the titles are in Swiss German.

Der Langlöifer, watercolour by Ian Clements
Der Langlöifer Watercolour

How a painting happens

  1. Sketch

    A few lines on the spot. Where the light comes from, where the people are.

  2. Photograph

    Not to copy. Just to remember what the snow did that morning.

  3. Remember

    Time does the editing. Detail falls away. What’s left is the light.

  4. Paint

    Sky wet into wet, quickly. Hard edges last. Leave the white alone.

3

Edges that don’t sit still

I am less interested in exactly how something looked than in what remains after the light, the weather and the movement have already changed.

So the forms are reduced and the edges stay loose. Figures are a posture, a red coat, a shadow on the Dorfstrasse: people held in a shared space, defined by how they stand rather than who they are.

Bubbles, watercolour by Ian Clements
Bubbles Watercolour · 47 x 19 cm · sold

4

And then, charcoal

When a subject needs weight rather than colour I put the brushes away. Charcoal is slow and physical: stone, cloud, a lake seen through the trees, built up from pressure and patience.

Looking out, charcoal on paper by Ian Clements
Looking out Charcoal on Paper · 60 x 134 cm · available

In September 2025 I opened my studio for Engelberg’s first Open Culture Day. My paintings are in private collections, and the whole archive is online.

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