Clara "Super Sleuths"

As curator of the Clara Harris collection and archive I’m always amazed and appreciative of the dedication, information and ideas that readers share with me. This becomes doubly important as I live in the NYC area and can’t visit Clara’s painting sites as often as I’d like. Emanuel Yarimi whose collection is on the site has “tracked down” more of Clara’s paintings:

“Attached here, are 4 more C.Harris works. They belong to my friend M.G. (of Toronto), who purchased them from Mary Barker, right after I did. At that time, I recommended to her to buy them fast, before they would be spotted by someone else... About the other 2 works (owned by T. S.), that are probably in her home in Jerusalem - I can not get hold of the owner.”

And Dan McDonald who owns Clara’s sketchbook has shared these insights with us:

Cover of Clara's Art Folio

Sumachs in King City1938

“Usually in April there is an antique show in King City not even one quarter of a mile from where I'm sure the sumac sketch was done. The sumac site was around one hundred yards from King Side road just west of Keele Street on the south side. The site was developed in the last twenty years and the sumac patch is now history, as is the hill with evergreens on it. The show’s held at the King City arena just one block east of Keele.

“If you look closely at the cover of the art folio you will see a scrape from the outer edge almost to the spine, then just under where it say's Clara there is an egg shaped scar that looks like it was ground a bit, I think it may have been caused by a bicycle tire. I think maybe she was out sketching, and it slid off a rat trap carrier and landed on the wheel and she did not stop instantly.”

I’ve also learned something else from reading Dan’s email: you can spell “sumach” like this or like this “sumac".