Clayton Spicer painted the rural scenes of his beloved Pennsylvania in the 1930’s-1950’s. He studied at the Chicago Art Institute, and the Art Students league under Frank Vincent DuMond and with Robert Henri, painting "Ashcan School” scenes of the city and a variety of pastoral landscapes.
He painted the rooftops and people of New York and the horses, barns, woods, streams and hillsides of Laporte, Pennsylvania and it’s environs. He also did plein air studies of tropical trees and gardens on his many trips to the West Indies. He painted with a deep sympathy for nature.
He did many portraits and commissions, where his subjects would sit for him.
He exhibited at the Lenox Gallery in NYC in 1943, and in Belmont Park in 1947 as well as in many group and solo shows over the span of his career.
Although he is not well known outside of PA, where his work hangs in the state house, his beautiful work is a part of American history as surely as were his forefathers, who came to Northeastern Pennsylvania before the American Revolution. During World War I he served as an infantry captain in the army.
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His beloved daughter Jessie Zerner (1919-1996) was a talented and prolific artist who made her living illustrating children’s books, greeting cards and educational workbooks. Her three children are Toni Lind, Peter Zerner (married to Carol Winder) and Amy Zerner, (married to Monte Farber).
Her grandchildren are Erik Lind (married to Karen Pettit), Rune Lind (married to Heather Steele), and Sarah Zerner (married to AD Athoumani). Her great-grandchildren are Blair Lind (son Erik & Karen), Magnus and Thea Lind (son & daughter of Rune & Heather, and Ilyas (son of Sarah & AD).
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Clayton' Spicer's paintings and materials are archived in East Hampton, NY, in the studios of Amy Zerner and Monte Farber., and are available for sale or exhibition.
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2010 - present
2010 - present
Clayton painting in the West Indies in the 1920's