Clarice Cliff (née Machin) took in washing to supplement the family income, and they had seven children. Cliff was sent to a different school from her siblings, and this perhaps prompted her more independent approach to her career, and her non-standard life style by Stoke-on-Trent standards. After school Cliff would visit an aunt who was a hand painters at a local pottery company, and she also made models from papier-mâché at school. At the age of 13, Cliff started working in the pottery industry. Her first work was as a gilder, adding gold lines on ware of traditional design. Once she had
Clarice Smith Clarice Smith Clarice Smith (born 1933) is an American painter and portraitist whose paintings have been exhibited in a number of exhibitions in the United States and Europe. With her late spouse, Robert H. Smith, Clarice Smith has engaged in philanthropy, especially at the University of Maryland, where the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is named for her. Clarice Smith studied art at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and the University of Maryland. She received her MFA from George Washington University, where she later taught as a member of faculty. Smith, who describes herself as a "lifelong