The People of Three Pines: Clara Morrow

Throughout Louise’s novels, Clara is depicted as a gifted, genuine artist, and a complex and evolving character. What characteristics come to mind when you think about Clara?

For many years Clara would remember how it felt standing there. Feeling again like the ugly little girl in the schoolyard. The unloved and unlovable child. – Still Life

‘They’re marvelous, Clara. They radiate.’ He turned to look at her in astonishment, as though meeting the woman for the first time. He’d known she was insightful, and courageous and compassionate. But he hadn’t appreciated that she was this gifted. – A Fatal Grace

Without asking for it she’d become the heart of their community. Small, middle-aged and getting a little plump, Clara was that rare combination: she was sensible and sensitive. – The Cruelest Month

Then she spotted Clara Morrow sitting on a rock jutting into the lake. Agent Lacoste stopped and watched. Clara Morrow’s hair was groomed under the sensible, floppy sun hat. Her shorts and shirt were neat, her face without smears or smudges or pastry. She was impeccable. – A Rule Against Murder

Clara. Short, plump, hair dark and wild, bread crust scattered into it like sparkles. Her eyes were blue and usually filled with humor. – The Brutal Telling

The distinguished artist with the head of graying hair and noble features could not possibly have chosen the woman with the beer in her boxing glove hands. And the pâté in her frizzy hair. And the studio full of sculptures made out of old tractor parts and paintings of cabbages with wings. No. Peter Morrow could not have chosen her. That would have been unnatural. And yet he had. And she had chosen him. – Bury Your Dead

Clara painted dear life. While the rest of the cynical art world was painting the worst, Clara painted the best. – A Trick of the Light

Clara Morrow was not someone who liked house work. What she liked was magic. Water into foam. Dirty dishes into clean. A blank canvas into a work of art. It wasn’t change she liked so much as metamorphosis. – How the Light Gets In

Clara still had paint in her wild hair, not the speckles that come from painting a wall or ceiling. These were streaks of ochre and cadmium yellow. And a fingerprint of burnt sienna on her neck, like a bruise. Clara Morrow painted portraits. And in the process, she often painted herself. – The Long Way Home

Clara was wearing sweats and held a paintbrush in her mouth, like a female FDR. Her hair stuck out at odd angles from running her hands through it. – The Nature of the Beast

Clara said she was painting herself, she didn’t mean it literally. Each afternoon Clara showed up with food in her hair and dabs of paint on her face. Today it was a shade of bright orange and marinara sauce. – A Great Reckoning

Normally Clara painted portraits. Extraordinary faces on canvas. Some brought smiles. Some made the viewer unaccountably melancholy, or uncomfortable, or cheerful. Some provoked strong feelings of nostalgia for no particular reason, except that Clara was a sort of alchemist, and could render emotions, even memories, into paint. Fossilized feelings were turned into oil, then returned, framed, to the person. – Glass Houses

But then she also knew Clara. Her friend’s brown hair stuck out from her head, as though she’d had a mild shock. She looked a little like a middle-aged Sputnik. Which would also explain her art. Clara Morrow’s paintings were otherworldly. And yet they were also achingly, profoundly human. – Kingdom of the Blind

Clara was wearing her usual jeans and a sweater. Success as an artist had not changed her fashion sense. Such as it was. Perhaps because recognition had come later in Clara’s life. In her late forties now, she’d been working in her studio for decades, creating works that went unnoticed. Her greatest success had been her Warrior Uterus series. She’d sold one. To herself. And given it to her mother-in-law. Thereby weaponizing her art. And her uterus. – A Better Man

“That is the expression, isn’t it? ‘Shit show’? I learned it from Ruth. She was describing Clara’s career as an artist.” – The Madness of Crowds

Clara Morrow was the real thing. A genuine artist. Not because she was a success—that came and went—but because she was bold and creative. And brave. Audacious. She tried new things, took chances, and evolved. – A World of Curiosities

Throughout Louise’s novels, Clara is depicted as a gifted, genuine artist, and a complex and evolving character. What characteristics come to mind when you think about Clara?