Curriculum Vitae
Born in Ayrshire, Claire grew up in Spey Bay on the Moray coast, before graduating with an MA in Fine Art from the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art with a distinction in painting in 1997.
She has shown her oil paintings professionally throughout the UK since 1998. Her work, inspired by the Scottish Borders and now East Lothian where she lives and works, is in many private collections in the UK and worldwide. She is currently represented by Morningside Gallery in Edinburgh and Cameron Contemporary Art in Brighton and is a member of the Society of Scottish Artists and Visual Arts Scotland.
Landscape has always been a source of inspiration. Her painting practice is based on her experience of the landscape and almost always features a solitary motif. Often this is a tree or group of trees, a cloud, hay bales, or the outline of hills against the sky and she is interested in the possibilities of the picture plane surrounding these elements and the idea of a distant centre representing pause, reflection and an idea of home. Claire creates her paintings by building colour and mark making over time until landscape elements and compositions settle into place, sometimes by chance and wants the final image to glow and resonate like a specific memory or a glance that comes briefly into focus.
Solo Exhibitions
Jun 2024 – As Far as I Can See, Waterfall Gallery, Hawick Museum
Feb 2018 – UMBRA at Cameron Contemporary Art, Brighton
Oct 2016 – STILL at Dundas Street Gallery Edinburgh with Cameron Contemporary Art
Oct 2015 – REVERIE preview at Chelsea Arts Club, London and Cameron Contemporary Art, Brighton
Oct 2013 – ARBOR at Store Street Gallery London and Cameron Contemporary Art, Brighton
Collections
Private collections worldwide.
Selected Group Exhibitions
Cameron Contemporary Art, Hove
Morningside Gallery, Edinburgh
Albany Gallery, Cardiff
Green Gallery, Buchlyvie
Fidra Fine Art, Gullane
Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh
Affordable Art Fair Battersea, New York, Hampstead, Bristol (annually)
Walker Galleries, Harrogate
Gallery Ten, Edinburgh
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Royal Glasgow Institute
Frames Gallery, Perth
Twenty Twenty Gallery, Shropshire
Paisley Art Institute
Chelsea Art Fair, London
Smithy Gallery, Blanefield
Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick upon Tweed
Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
Residencies
Feb 2021 – Marchmont House Tower Studio Creative Spaces Residency
Publications
Jan/Feb 2021 – ‘The English Home’
Jan 2021 – Artmag
Oct 2016 – Sussex Life
Nov 2015 – ‘Stella’ magazine
Prizes & Awards
Mar 2021 – Creative Scotland Visual Artist Award
Mar 2012 – Creative Scotland Visual Artist Award
May 1997 – Helen A Rose Bequest – for distinguished work, Edinburgh College of Art
