A graduate of the Cleveland School of Art in 1912, Clara Deike was part of the watercolor movement in Northeast Ohio whereby the outdoor sketch became a distinct genre. The group formed the Cleveland Watercolor Society in 1894, and members typically painted outdoors during the summer, enjoying watercolor for its fast-drying properties.

She was a student of Henry Keller, 1869-1949, the first Ohio artist to attain distinction as a watercolorist. With him, she developed a modernist style but she utilized his color theories and went further with her own personalized style that emphasized two-dimensional, decorative design. She often used opaque gouache because of its capacity to give the appearance of flattened forms.

Source:
"...