Penny Dobbie, David Clarke, Cindie Ah Ling, Katherine Graham and Richard Clarke at the book launch

“I can’t believe you wrote a book. That’s amazing!”

This is often the response I get whenever I release a new book. And my reply is invariably, “Writing the book is easy. Getting it to print is hard.”

But here I am, after many books that I’ve self-published, and I’m still doing it. Why? Because some stories deserve to be told. That was definitely the case with Peter Clarke, a book I struggled to publish for about eight years.

I can honestly say that this book, Dreaming of Freedom: The Story of Peter Clarke, about the well-known Cape Town artist who was forcibly removed from Simonstown and did so much to celebrate the lives of the poor and marginalised, published in partnership with Susan Keegan of The Vine Publishers, was harder than the first one in the series, A Passionate Vision, a biography of the German/South African Expressionist artist Irma Stern. Why that is the case, I don’t know. The budget we had for the Irma Stern book was enough to carry the costs of writing, editing, designing and printing the book, as well as the rights to her art work from the South African National Library. This time around, our budget (which was the same) barely covered half our costs. And then I had to go the crowdfunding route, which was hard for me, but ended up being the right way to bring this book to life.

I was so touched by those who wanted this story to be heard. There were advocates in familiar and unexpected places. My family were hugely supportive, especially my mother-in-law Bobbie Graham, who rallied her entourage of supporters. And then there was Kate Crane-Briggs from Culture Connect, who linked me up with Penny Dobbie, an art gallery owner and friend of Peter’s. They were also so kind and encouraging.

With the help of the funds we raised, I was able to pay for the layout and printing of the book, a modest 90 copies. The graphic designer Laura Outhet from TriArt Creations did a superb job putting the book together in a visually appealing way. I was grateful that the cover came to me in a dream after my son told me he thought blue for Peter Clarke would complement the orange of the Irma Stern book. And the printers were great to work with. Rushdien Alexander of the Printing Press got the proof copy right the first time. (This isn’t usually the case!)

Another of the book’s advocates was Cindie Ah Ling, principal of the Peter Clarke Art Centre in Cape Town. When I told her we’d like to host the book launch there, she jumped into action and made it happen. And what a perfect spot to have the launch, right at the art centre named after the artist! The beautiful Victorian building lent grandeur to the occasion on Saturday 17 January. I was thrilled that so many members of the Clarke family could be there – two of his brothers Richard and David, as well as his nephew Jeremy Koeries and his wife Tania. And I was very glad that Janice Thorne-Smith of The Vine School could lend a hand with tracking book sales while I was busy signing copies. (It was just a pity that Susan Keegan of The Vine Publishers couldn’t be there as she was visiting family in the UK.)

So many people spoke spontaneously after my presentation, filling in the picture of not only what an exceptional artist Peter was, but how kind and generous he was with his time. He mentored so many other artists, encouraging them to pursue their passion and calling. I particularly enjoy Peter’s writing and poetry, which offers delightful insights into who he was and the community in Simonstown that helped shape who he became.

My favourite works of Peter Clarke’s are definitely the striking linocuts that communicate so much emotion and life with an economy of line and colour, such as Die Lang Pad. And also the gentle Cubist and Mexican muralists’ influences on his early oil paintings, with their everyday figures undaunted by apartheid, such as The Blue Bird (1959) and The Washerwoman (1960). He had a way of making the ordinary extraordinary, of celebrating the dispossessed and forgotten.

I hope my humble tribute to his life adds to our understanding of Peter Clarke. He was “onse artist en ok onse poet” as someone once rightly observed. And I hope that it will be a long while till my next book launch, to give myself time to recover.

If you’d like to buy Dreaming of Freedom: The Story of Peter Clarke, you can purchase a copy from The Peter Clarke Art Centre in Cape Town for R250 each.