Draft:David Clendining

David Hamilton Clendining
Born	July 4, 1954 Calgary Alberta Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Education	Ontario College of Art & Design
Alma mater	OCAD University
Known for	Bronze Monuments
Notable work	Animals at War Memorial Charles Darwin statue Canadian Merchant Marines Memorial; WWI Ace Roy Brown statue
Partner	Kerry Stothers

David Clendining (b. July 4, 1954) is a Canadian artist and educator who has accomplished significant works of art displayed in Canada and internationally. Since 1978, he has produced countless creations and artwork and is best known for his bronze and stone monuments. His artistic talents became apparent at an early age, and following high school he pursued a career as an artist, initially supplemented first by work in the carpentry trade, followed with professional work in set design, illustration, advertising, production art, and film production for organizations in television, before becoming a fulltime artist in his Summit Studios Inc. in 1993.

Most of his bronze works are located at government properties and parks in Canada. The artist's bronze statues and plaques adorn the Centennial Flame, the National War Memorial and Canada's Confederation Boulevard. Among his well-known works are the Animals in War Memorial, the Charles Darwin bronze for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the Canadian Merchant Marines Monument in Sydney Nova Scotia, and the monument of the Canadian Flying Ace Roy Brown in Carleton Place, Ontario.

Clendining won many competitions to apply his skills in the design and fabrication of large-scale displays at significant museums and visitor centres, both permanent and long-term exhibits.

He has produced museum and zoological displays for organizations across Canada, the United States, and Europe. As an illustrator and graphic artist, his work has included television and film industry sets and special effects, as well as providing his court room illustrations for the Canadian news industry.

Second World War veteran Lloyd Swick instigated the project for the Animals of War Memorial. Laureen Harper was the project's honorary patron and NDP MP Peter Stoffer was a big supporter. As the sculptor, Clendining created the monument, requiring three versions, over nearly one and a half years. There are three parts to the animal war memorial consisting of a section to honour horses, another for mules, and the third for dogs. Clendining noted the mules were based on photos and the horses he observed at places near his Ottawa home. The dog, however, was based on his old German Shepard, Lucky. Leading up to the memorial are footprints on the ground of the three animals depicted.

Since he was a boy, naturalist Charles Darwin was a lifelong hero of Clendining's, who he envied for his travels and exploration of nature. The Smithsonian Institute chose Clendining to create the life size Darwin bronze statue, that is sitting, gazing up at an inscription of his Theory of Evolution.

Clendining's Merchant Marine monument in Sydney Nova Scotia depicts sailors torpedoed in World War Two floating in the ocean, on makeshift Carley floats made of planks and oil drums, waiting for rescue that more often never arrived.

First World War RAF Canadian Flying Ace Roy Brown from Carleton Place, Ontario is credited with shooting down the Red Baron. The monument Clendining sculpted and cast of Brown was unveiled June 15, 2021.

As an art educator, Clendining has taught at numerous learning institutions, as well as his own Summit Art Centre. The rural property near Ottawa Ontario includes studios and workshops where Clendining designed and produced much of his work since 1990 with the help and support of his partner, fine artist Kerry Stothers, and studio assistant Rachel Guretain.

Early Life

Clendining was born in 1954 in Calgary Alberta, Canada, the middle child of three brothers. The Clendining family moved to Oakville Ontario in 1958 where he attended Maple Grove public school until the family returned to Calgary. Here David attended Alex Ferguson public school for grades four through six, and during this time his burgeoning artistic talent was noticed as he began to submit and win art awards at the Calgary Stampede. As a young elementary student, it became apparent that Clendining was destined for a life in the world of art. Years later it was determined that he was dyslexic, a condition that was not recognized until the mid- 1950's to 1960's. Art and music became his passions which would serve him for the rest of his life.

The family moved back to Oakville in 1964, and he was enrolled in Linbrook public school. Here he completed grades six through eight and his talent continued to develop and grow. While attending Oakville Trafalgar high school from 1968 - 1972, he learned to play the saxophone, harmonica and piano, and found passion in music while continuing to hone his skills in sculpture and water colour painting. Illustration became a serious pursuit and he found inspiration in the works of Arthur Rackham, an English illustrator (1867 - 1939). Rackham's most notable works were his illustrations in Washington Irving's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

In order to focus more on his art, Clendining switched to the OTHS night school program to complete his high school education, thus leaving his days free for artistic pursuits. He worked for a local commercial artist as a carpenter and assistant for advertising projects, and became involved in theatre arts, design, and building sets for several theatrical company productions.

Realizing his future would focus on the Arts, Clendining knew he would need another source of income as popular belief was most artists lived in poverty. He supplemented his creative pursuits with the carpentry trade. Years later, he would complete his apprenticeship and become a journeyman carpenter. He graduated high school in 1972 and moved to Georgia and Florida in the USA for seven months to fine tune his skills playing the sax and harmonica. While in the southern states, Clendining began to realize that a career in music would remain a secondary creative endeavour. The Vietnam war was going badly for the USA and a policy of mandatory conscription was initiated by the federal government. At a fateful music gig in Daytona Beach Florida, Clendining was seized by the authorities who began his recruitment process into the army. That was abandoned when it became clear that he was a Canadian citizen. Upon his release he moved back to Canada.

In 1973, Clendining was accepted into the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University) to further study bronze sculpture and casting, illustration, graphic design, and communication arts. Clendining lived in Oakville on a farm with four students attending Algonquin College animation department. A new area of interest began for Clendining and, while at OCA, he attended the Sheridan College animation program. He worked briefly at Nelvana Animation Studios in Toronto doing background illustrations for several features such as Rock & Rule (known as 'Ring of Power' outside North America) and Heavy Metal. He also attended University of Toronto's medical illustration program to acquire further artistic disciplines.

As an aspiring young artist, he knew that many areas for potential artistic income would be necessary. A low percentage of art graduates actually gained employment as paid professional artists and Clendining was determined to be part of that group. During this period, he had several shows of his painting and sculptural works at various galleries in Toronto such as the Times Gallery in the Yorkville area and the Cardinal Gallery in the west end. Gallery shows were promising but he could not rely on them so he continued exploring other avenues.

He completed his final OCA year in Florence Italy where he attended their off-campus program. While living in Italy, he continued with water colour illustrations and sculpture. He was invited to apprentice at the Senior Anichini Sculpture Studio in Lamole, Chianti, south of Florence. There he was introduced to wood carving and historical building restoration. When studies in Florence were completed in 1978, he traveled around Europe picking up temporary commissions and produced many illustrations, paintings, and sculptures which were shown in galleries throughout Europe. In London England, he worked briefly for Richard Williams of Williams Animation Studios as a background illustrator and special effects (SFX) animator. He returned to Canada in 1979.

Clendining married (1979 - 1992) and moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario. For a year he worked in several jobs, one of which was for a sign painter.He was good at painting window displays because everything was painted on the inside of the windows and backwards. This was a natural method of thinking for him, being dyslexic. On one monumental occasion while leaving a completed job, he looked back at his work and that was a "Eureka moment". Suddenly he understood why he had difficulty reading comprehensively. Everything in his world was backward. With this new understanding in 1980, he enrolled at Lakehead University and completed his B.A. in Historical and Social economics. His reading improved and he learned to read quickly and, in just two years, he finished his degree.

Career

While attending Lakehead University, Clendining continued his carpenter's apprenticeship working in cabinet shops and framing houses. After completing the required 7,000 hour work apprenticeship, he wrote the carpenter exam and passed. He became a journeyman carpenter, joined the union and started a job at Abitibi Price paper mill (now Abitibi Consolidated) in Thunder Bay. But fate had different plans for Clendining. Less than a week into his employment, the union called a strike, and he was once again out of work. (Fourteen years later those carpentry skills became essential when he purchased a property with a small lake near Ottawa and began to build what is known today as Summit Studios Creative Center Inc).

After finishing at Abitibi Price, he applied and was hired as a graphic artist at a local television station, CKPR/CHFD. Over the next three years he was responsible for set design, illustration, advertising, production art, and film production. He also continued doing illustrations, playing the saxophone, and illustrated an amateur author's children's book. While working at CKPR, he was approached by CTV for the Canadian news magazine program W5 to do some court room illustrations for a particularly "newsworthy" murder trial. That trial and those illustrations led to his being employed by CTV as a court room illustrator for many trials across Canada. This led to his move to the Ottawa area in 1983, when he was employed as Art Director for the CTV network at CJOH TV, as production director, responsible for set design, illustration, special effects, animation, promotional advertising, court room illustration, and developing broadcast technologies, until the TV industry collapse in 1994.

From then on, he became a freelance artist, focusing exclusively on his own company Summit Studios Inc. located near Ottawa, as well as the Summit Art Centre where he provided unique training opportunities for artists, and where he still continues his art and craftwork. His work with the War Horse Memorial led him to become a Canadian Ambassador for the War Horse Memorial in support of the organization for the first national memorial dedicated to the millions of UK, Commonwealth and Allied horses, mules and donkeys lost during The Great War.

Clendining has been a part-time teacher for at least thirty years in learning institutions across Canada, including Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario; North Island Secondary School in Port McNeill, British Columbia, and Algonquin College and University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Ontario. Up until the COVID19 pandemic, Clendining most recently taught at the Ottawa School of Art.

Achievements

Clendining's primary focus has been the design, creation, fabrication and production of national monuments, museum displays, architectural details, historical restoration/conservation, movie sets and special effects.

Bronze Monuments and Plaques

Bronze monuments of the Animals in War Memorial^{[1] [2]} located in Confederation Park Ottawa;

Installations involving the carving of 32 bronze interpretation panels and seven large "way-finding scale bronze models" of downtown Ottawa along the prestigious ceremonial route called Confederation Boulevard required several years to complete;

RAF WWI Canadian Flying Ace Roy Brown, Carleton Place Ontario;

Stone carvings including the grotesques and gargoyles

Sculptor, designer, fabricator and installation of grotesques for Public Works Canada, Center Block Peace Tower, Parliament Hill

Capital - West Block Parliament Hill

Christ Church Cathedral in Montreal

Monuments in the Garden of the Provinces and Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau, Quebec;

Summit Studios Inc. was commissioned by Pubic Works Canada to refurbish the existing bronze shields, make a new Nunavut shield, and re-build all the bronze and stainless steel elements of the iconic Canadian Centennial Flame monument in Ottawa on the grounds of the parliament buildings in 2017. Clendining was one of the four artists who rebuilt the bronze plaques when the territory of Nunavut was added, changing the layout from 12 to 13 plaques (CBC News 2017);

the rededication bronzes for the Canadian National War Memorial in Ottawa;

Life-size bronze statue of Charles Darwin, after his early Cambridge University years, for the Smithsonian Institute of Technologies in Washington DC. (2018). (Clendining shown with the cast model).

The initial design of the Merchant Marine Monument^[4] in Sydney, Nova Scotia by Don Smith (Owner/Principal Consultant at The Phoenix Consultancy) of White Point, NS, led to Clendining's sculpting and production of the work of art.

Museum displays, murals, sculptures, models, sets and special effects around Canada, include displays for the Canadian Museum of Nature,

Canadian Museum of History;

1812 Monument, Parliament Hill Ottawa - Proposal Marquette for National Capital Commission

Displays

Sculptor, designer, fabrication and installation of displays for:

- Hopewell Rocks Visitor Centre near Moncton New Brunswick;

- North Cape Wind Turbine Visitor Center Prince Edward Island;

- Brule fossil display in Tatamagouche NS;

- Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, ON

- Home from the Sea, Elliston Visitor's Center NL (2014)

- PPCLI, Alberta Military Museums (2013)

- Science North, Sudbury Ontario (2013)

Summit Studios Inc. was contracted to build the Fathers of Confederation display for the Founders Hall Interpretive Centre on the Charlottetown waterfront PEI, employing a crew of 19 hand-picked artists from Ontario and beyond; plus the subcontracting a museum exhibit manufacturer ExpoZone that provided an additional 20 person crew.

Polymer Hollow Cast Concrete Celtic Crosses created for BBC "Celtic Roots" TV production;

Polymer Concrete Celtic Gazebo;

Polymer Concrete Artificial Rocks

Five 500 gallon Terrariums and Aquariums complete with realistic sculpted environmental backgrounds and all mechanical life support systems at the Pinery Provincial Park Visitor Centre in Grand Bend ON;

A variety of scientific specimen displays for Parks Canada Visitor Centers;

Sculptor, conservator and restorations of historic architectural details, England, Suffolk Cathedral, Montreal, Christ Cathedral and others.

The Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

"Honor Role" bronze plaques and Colonel James Mcleod statue for RCMP headquarters Ottawa (2013)

Production of large scale molds (9'-6") of existing stone sculptures for bronze reproductions, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal Quebec. (2013)

Restoration and re-cast of National Capital Commission bronze Brebeuf Plaque, Gatineau QC (2013)

Stage and Television Sets

Stage and Television productions include all productions at CJOH TV from 1983 to 1994. Movie sets and SFX for productions include Chasing Rainbows, the CFL Awards, Grey Owl, The 13th Warrior, H2O, and Decoys, and more.

CTV nationally - Home Grown Café

CTV nationally - Linda Ronstat Special

CTV nationally – CHEO Miracle Network

CBC Nationally – Spirit of the Country

Murals

Samann Chateau, Gananoque, ON.

Signal Hill Visitor Centre in St. John's Newfoundland and Labrador;

Human Resources Development Canada