The Woodbury Art Museum is proud to house a collection of works by Jeanne Leighton-Lundberg Clarke. In partnership with the Family Trust, the museum cares for and displays her paintings.
Leighton-Lundberg Clarke called her painting thesis a “Maximal Statement” and her work is rich with symbolism.
The maximalist, color-laden approach is this artist’s signature style. Her unique perspectives and flattened planes combine with her full canvases to make her work unmistakable. Leighton-Lundberg Clarke most actively painted between the 1970’s and the 1990’s on large-scale canvases with self-painted frames. She created several series of works, all pictured in richly patterned and colorful interior settings, including reclining female figures, family groups with set dinner tables, and Favorite Ladies. Favorite Ladies paintings are her most distinguished works and can be found in nearly every Utah museum, as well as in private collections.
Entertaining Famous Ladies III, Jeanne Leighton-Lundberg Clarke, 1991
Entertaining Favorite Ladies III, housed in the Woodbury Art Museum’s Permanent Collection, contains rich tones and a table set for some of the most identifiable ladies in art history. This piece is meant to prompt viewers to ask themselves “What do you think of the way these women are portrayed?” Meaning, assess how the famed male artists like Picasso and Vermeer represented these nameless, but recognizable women. Each version of the Favorite Ladies is different in hue and subject, but they all ask this same question.
Activity:
This is a fun art project that gives you the freedom to use whatever material you like! Taking inspiration from Leighton-Lundberg Clarke’s Famous Ladies, imagine a dinner party of your own. Who would be there? Would they be fun figures, political icons, pioneers of imagination, sports legends, or famous chefs? Once you figure out who you want at your dinner party, you can bring it to life. The instructions below indicate the materials we used for our project.
● Magazines
● White cardstock or white paper
● Glue stick
● Scissors
● Sketch paper
● Pencil
Directions:
1 - Research Leighton-Lundberg Clarke’s Famous Ladies pieces for inspiration and try to formulate your own dinner party idea.
2 - Sketch your ideas out on sketch paper.
3 - Use magazines to find pictures of the people you want at your table. Also, try to find a table, table settings, and colorful backgrounds to use in your piece.
4 - Cut out the images you like from magazines.
5 - Organize and glue the magazine clipping on white cardstock or white paper.
Remember, you’re the artist here! Get inspired, be creative, and, most importantly, have fun!
