One of Claire's earliest memories involves making art. At around 18 months old (Claire is one of those people who can remember being a baby) her then 5 year old brother left his Crayola crayons and paper spread across the living room carpet, inviting tiny hands to investigate. Claire can still remember the feelings of joy and excitement she experienced when making colourful scribbles for the first time and how important it was to make her mark. This powerful impression never left Claire and most of her childhood was spent creating. As a small child she adored fuzzy felt which progressed into making her own collaged artwork from fabric scraps, wool, beads and buttons.
She made many of the craft projects shown on the popular children's TV show, Blue Peter, as well as inventing her own art projects such as the time (with the help of her Dad's engineering) she made a fabric bird marionette, that walked, pecked and flapped it's wings! At primary school, Claire would often be invited to stand up in assembly and show and tell her drawings, paintings, collages, clay sculptures and sewing projects.
At the age of 4 the nursery's sand pit was carried into assembly because Claire had created a prehistoric, volcanic landscape in sand, complete with her own sculpted plasticine dinosaurs. Luckily for Claire, art was celebrated throughout the whole of her schooling and she enthusiastically threw herself into all things creative, from painting school drama sets to illustrating her High school magazine.
It was obvious that after a year at Art College, Claire would go on to study a BA (Hons) degree at Manchester Metropolitan University in Fashion, Textiles and Embroidery. It was the early 90's and. Acid House....Hacienda Being able too go to the famous club, after years spent collecting and listening to DJ mixtapes of early House and Dance classic tunes.
As a young child, Claire was fascinated by the illustrations of Robert Lumley and Eric Winter, the 1960's/1970's illustrators for the Ladybird series of children's picture books. Both Lumley and Winter created realistic images with a medieval/fairytale asthetic, combined with a horror/whimsical twist. This in particular, would inspire Claire's more recent artwork which includes The real Mr Punch, a....project.
While living in Australia for 4 years, Claire wrote and illustrated her first picture book, I Have a Bear, for Brolly Books, Melbourne. It was a childhood premonition at 6 years old that drove Claire to pursue her dream of becoming a children's author and illustrator, and one that she continues to work towards, with new digital illustrations.
Claire's work has now branched into visionary art initially published within Wyrd zine, a publication born from global crisis and initiation.
Calire's commercial representation is by The Art Hound Gallery, Cambridge's premier Modern & Contemporary Art gallery.
ART HOUND GALLERY