Clarrie was born in Derby, Western Australia, and moved to Kalumburu in the missionary days, where he grew up and went to school. He trained as a builder in his community and worked in the community shop. In 1999, he was elected Chairman of the Kalumburu Aboriginal Community Council. Clarrie has only recently taken up painting as a way of passing on his culture to the younger generation.

The artist was inspired by the silhouettes of Aboriginal divinities discovered in the region in 1891 by the English explorer Joseph Bradshaw, after whom they were named - a fact reflected in the title of the work "Bradshaw's Silhouettes". 

Little is known about the deities represented by these silhouettes: in any case, they preceded the Wandjina spirits in Kimberley mythology. - whose oldest representations date back nearly 3,000 years. The "Bradshaw silhouettes" therefore evoke spirits linked to the very origins of Aboriginal culture, and are similar to the Mimi spirits whose thread-like representations can be found in Western Arnhem Land.