A prominent artist, teacher and prison officer was also a war veteran who served in West Germany and was wounded in Northern Ireland during its sectarian fighting known as The Troubles.

Vernon Clarke was remembered by Warwick Academy as a “beloved” arts teacher.

The school added: “Vernon was not only a talented artist but also a cherished mentor who inspired many students with his creativity and passion for the arts.

“His legacy will live on through the countless lives he touched and the beautiful works he created.”

Mr Clarke won awards in Bermuda for his work, and he prided himself on growing constantly — enrolling on a three-year course at the University of Kent at Canterbury at the age of 47.

He garnered a Bachelor of Arts honours degree, followed swiftly by a solo exhibit of his work back home at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art.

In 1999, he won the RG Cover of the Century competition.

“I’m 68 now and I still feel myself growing,” Mr Clarke told The Royal Gazette in a 2018 interview as his show, Vernon Clarke: A Retrospective, wrapped up at the Bermuda Society of Arts.

He said the exhibition showcased the evolution of his work across 30 years, adding: “You can see the line of progression — my hand getting more steady, more confident and more decisive.”

Although Mr Clarke said he craved art from childhood, rendering scenes out of comics and drawing flowers, it proved a tough sell with his family.

“My father, Cecil, was determined to make a better life for us,” he told the Gazette.

“I was born in Jamaica. My father left when I was 10 to work in London, and moved the family there a few years later.

“He was a hard-working man employed by British Rail. He didn’t really understand me doing art.”

He said he was told that “England is the land of opportunity — don’t waste it on art”.

Initially heeding his father’s advice, Mr Clarke studied mechanics and prepared for an engineering career, but also attended Camberwell Art College as a part-time student.

He began his working life with the Royal Engineers in the British Army, but was never without his sketchbook.

While guarding the Berlin Wall during the height of the Cold War, he earned the nickname of “Picasso” as he sketched, painted and took photographs around the camp.

In Northern Ireland in 1972, when the simmering conflict was peaking, Mr Clarke was out on the street in Londonderry, Northern Ireland’s second-largest city, when he was shot in the thigh by a Provisional Irish Republican Army sniper.

The bullet glanced upwards, hitting Mr Clarke in the hip and leaving him with a permanent limp. He drew pictures throughout his recovery in hospital.

He came to Bermuda in 1973 after marrying a Bermudian he met in London. The couple had a son, Paul, before separating.

Mr Clarke covered the bills at a firm that manufactured doors, windows and awnings, but got a job at the former Casemates prison in 1975, working as an engineer and prison officer.

He ended up running the prison’s engineering workshop during a 21-year career, later moving to the Prison Farm before his retirement in 1996.

Mr Clarke and his second wife, Pamela, had two daughters, Shani and Nikki.

He continued to take art classes and studied with other Bermudian artists, and took inspiration from figures such as the 18th-century English painter Joseph Wright.

He also moved into digitally influenced artwork, such as the 56 Highway painting that won the Cover of the Century competition.

Mr Clarke’s devotion to his art never flagged.

“Paint has the power to hold me all day and night,” he told The Bermudian magazine.

“In fact, I do my best work when I’m tired and going on reflexes, when I’ve gone to that place where I find myself.”

• Vernon Norman Clarke, an award-winning artist, teacher and war veteran, was born on September 28, 1949. He died in October 2024, aged 75