ABOUT
Claire is a professional full-time artist working from her purpose built home studio in Yorkshire, UK. Claire combines her two greatest passions - drawing and wildlife and has been creating wildlife art and pet portraits for over 20 years, initially starting out in graphite in the late 1990s. After sampling coloured pencil in 2002 she fell in the love with the medium very quickly and it has been her medium of choice ever since. Claire specialises in a highly detailed and realistic style of drawing, capturing the soul and essence of each animal in their finest details.
Claire's work is split between both pet portraits and wildlife art, although from 2021 her focus will be more on her wildlife collection. Her art adorns the walls of collectors worldwide including UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Singapore and New Zealand. Claire draws her inspiration from the natural world including the many British animals of the Yorkshire countryside which she is surrounded by every day.
EXHIBITIONS, PUBLICATIONS & RECOGNITION
Claire has exhibited nationally (from 2006 to 2010 in UK galleries) and won recognised awards for her work (Derwent Drawing Prize Patchings Art Festival (2006).
In 2018 she was the featured cover artist of the February edition of 'Colored Pencil Magazine'.
In 2019 she was invited to be featured in Ann Kullberg's DRAW: Wildlife book, published in bookstores around the world.
In January 2020 her drawing of a sleeping 'Koala' raised over $6,350 for the Australian Bushfire appeal with her Limited Edition Prints of the drawing selling out in less than 2 hours.
In May 2020 'Tim of Amboseli' was shortlisted for the DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London.
Claire's continues to be a keen supporter of wildlife conservation and often supports wildlife charities through her artwork. Charities she has supported to date include WWF, Bumblebee Conservation Society, Wildlife Victoria, RSPB and David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation.
2022 marks 20 years of being a coloured pencil animal artist for Claire. She currently has plans in the pipeline to celebrate with a solo exhibition and a special one-off UK and USA workshop tour.
ART MATERIALS
Claire uses the highest quality art materials available so that her work can last through generations.
For her coloured pencil work Claire uses a mixed selection of pencils for the best colour palette and use of light-fast materials; She mainly uses Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901, Caran d'Ache Pablos, Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle, Derwent Drawing, Derwent Lightfast, Derwent Coloursoft and the Faber Castell Polychromos range. The pencils she uses are museum-grade archival, with the highest degrees of lightfastness.
Claire has experimented with many different papers over the last 20 years - however her favoured paper has always been Italian Fabriano Artistico 640gsm hot pressed 100% cotton which is acid-free and archival museum rated.
