Clarke Hutton began his career in the art world working as a scene painter and assistant to Carl Wilhelm at the EmpireLeicester Square. Following an extended trip to Europe in the late 1920s, he enrolled as a mature student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under the tutelage of A.S.Hartrick. On Hartrick's retirement three years later, Hutton took over teaching his lithography classes and was appointed head of the department. He was a prolific illustrator of around seventy books, as well as a passionate and accomplished painter. Although reluctant to exhibit, he did hold a few one man exhibitions, and exhibited work at the Royal Academy, Redfern Gallery, Zwemmers Gallery and Michael Parkin Gallery.