The Yellow Room Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - The Yellow Room
The Yellow Room 2017
The Yellow RoomClara AdolphsThe Yellow Room
The Yellow Room2017
oil on linen
50.5 x 54 cm
SOLD 
Yellow Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Yellow
Yellow 2017
YellowClara AdolphsYellow
Yellow2017
oil on linen
57 x 65.5 cm
SOLD 
Blue Sand Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Blue Sand
Blue Sand 2017
Blue SandClara AdolphsBlue Sand
Blue Sand2017
oil on linen
108 x 84 cm
SOLD 
Clear Skies Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Clear Skies
Clear Skies 2017
Clear SkiesClara AdolphsClear Skies
Clear Skies2017
oil on linen
60 x 77 cm
SOLD 
Together In Blue Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Together In Blue
Together In Blue 2017
Together In BlueClara AdolphsTogether In Blue
Together In Blue2017
oil on linen
62 x 82 cm
SOLD 
Morning Air Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Morning Air
Morning Air 2017
Morning AirClara AdolphsMorning Air
Morning Air2017
oil on linen
64 x 79 cm
SOLD 
Friends Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Friends
Friends 2017
FriendsClara AdolphsFriends
Friends2017
oil on linen
54 x 74 cm
SOLD 
Creature Of Habit Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Creature Of Habit
Creature Of Habit 2017
Creature Of HabitClara AdolphsCreature Of Habit
Creature Of Habit2017
oil on linen
46 x 51 cm
SOLD 
Amongst Men III Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Amongst Men III
Amongst Men III 2017
Amongst Men IIIClara AdolphsAmongst Men III
Amongst Men III2017
oil on linen
65 x 96 cm
SOLD 
Lake Side II Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Lake Side II
Lake Side II 2017
Lake Side IIClara AdolphsLake Side II
Lake Side II2017
oil on linen
62 x 61 cm
$3,700  ENQUIRE
Beautiful Sunday Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Beautiful Sunday
Beautiful Sunday 2017
Beautiful SundayClara AdolphsBeautiful Sunday
Beautiful Sunday2017
oil on linen
64 x 49 cm
SOLD 
Three O'Clock Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Three O'Clock
Three O'Clock 2017
Three O'ClockClara AdolphsThree O'Clock
Three O'Clock2017
oil on linen
64 x 63 cm
SOLD 
Late Night Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Late Night
Late Night 2017
Late NightClara AdolphsLate Night
Late Night2017
oil on linen
73 x 103 cm
SOLD 
Night Games Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Night Games
Night Games 2017
Night GamesClara AdolphsNight Games
Night Games2017
oil on linen
74 x 97 cm
SOLD 
Lake Side Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Lake Side
Lake Side 2017
Lake SideClara AdolphsLake Side
Lake Side2017
oil on linen
89 x 119 cm
SOLD 
Slow Reflection Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Slow Reflection
Slow Reflection 2017
Slow ReflectionClara AdolphsSlow Reflection
Slow Reflection2017
oil on linen
70 x 67 cm
SOLD 
Little Blue Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Little Blue
Little Blue 2017
Little BlueClara AdolphsLittle Blue
Little Blue2017
oil on linen
61 x 89 cm
SOLD 
Jump Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Jump
Jump 2017
JumpClara AdolphsJump
Jump2017
oil on linen
55.5 x 75 cm
SOLD 
Floating Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Floating
Floating 2017
FloatingClara AdolphsFloating
Floating2017
oil on linen
74 x 78 cm
SOLD 
Afternoon Paper Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Afternoon Paper
Afternoon Paper 2017
Afternoon PaperClara AdolphsAfternoon Paper
Afternoon Paper2017
oil on linen
61 x 80 cm
SOLD 
Boutonniere Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Boutonniere
Boutonniere 2017
BoutonniereClara AdolphsBoutonniere
Boutonniere2017
oil on linen
55 x 67 cm
SOLD 
Erik Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Erik
Erik 2017
ErikClara AdolphsErik
Erik2017
oil on linen
51.5 x 62 cm
SOLD 
White Veranda Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - White Veranda
White Veranda 2017
White VerandaClara AdolphsWhite Veranda
White Veranda2017
oil on linen
64 x 55 cm
SOLD 
Sailor Time Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Sailor Time
Sailor Time 2017
Sailor TimeClara AdolphsSailor Time
Sailor Time2017
oil on linen
56 x 46 cm
SOLD 
Golden Age Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Golden Age
Golden Age 2017
Golden AgeClara AdolphsGolden Age
Golden Age2017
oil on linen
49 x 49 cm
SOLD 

My work explores the notion of time and memory. Fascinated by the question of what remains after a moment in time passes, I reference abandoned photography as a foundation for my work.

I use a combination of palette knife and brush, with a generous amount of paint. I take much pleasure in surrendering control and allowing the paint to take on a life of it's own.

The anonymity of the characters in my paintings is an attempt to avoid sentimentality. Being disconnected from their identity allows a focus on the indefinable, yet timeless, collective nature of the human condition.

Like the hazy recollections of an ageing mind, Clara Adolphs’s paintings cling to scarcely remembered histories and brief encounters between friends and strangers. The result of Adolphs’s fascination with old photos and the life stories they represent, each work is a melancholy study in mortality and the impermanence of memory.

Using photographs collected from flea markets and old newspaper clippings, Adolphs reimagines the anonymous faces and locations in thick impasto paint, working quickly to capture the stories that emerge. Male figures dominate, as Adolphs finds herself drawn repeatedly to observing how men’s experience of the world differs from that of women.

The decision to use found images rather than those from her own collection is a considered one, giving Adolphs the emotional distance to paint intuitively and without sentiment. Free to reconstruct their ambiguous narratives, she immortalises otherwise fleeting moments of human experience as something beautiful and tangible, and not easily forgotten.

Born in Sydney, Clara Adolphs is a three-time finalist of the Portia Geach Memorial Prize, the Mosman Art Prize and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, as well as the Salon des Refuses, and Paddington Art Prize. In 2015, Adolphs won Second Prize in the Outback Art Prize at Broken Hill Regional Gallery, and was named a finalist in the 2016 Archibald Prize for her portrait of actor Terry Serio. In 2017 she was awarded the Eva Breuer Traveling Art Scholarship through the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Carrie McCarthy