Claire Wiltsher

Claire’s pictures capture light and movement to give a sense of place and invite you to form your own interpretation of the landscape. They are painted mostly in oil and mixed media. The layers are thickly applied against her textured studio wall, then partially scraped or wiped away and given the spontaneous finishing touches. She lives locally and so naturally the New Forest and Solent are themes that reappear in her work.
She has just won the Chapple canvas prize for outstanding work in oil awarded at the Royal Society of Marine Artists’ annual exhibition. This adds to her increasing number of awards.

Artist Statement:
I have always been interested in painting and followed it through to degree level as a mature student at Lancashire Polytechnic. Later, I completed a Masters in Fine Art at Northumbria University while teaching in a college.
I work with oils and mixed media based on Landscape. My intention is to capture a sense of place through depicting an atmosphere using seen and abstract spaces. I build up layers or depth and texture using fragments of collage and drawing materials over the top of dried oil paint. Light and movement is the focus for my paintings. Turner and Pollock have been big inspirations. I work from memory, drawings and photos to create a personal statement of a moment. The New forest and Dorset coast are just two special places. I love travelling and have kept journals and sketches from around the world often on solo journeys. These provide inspiration as well as the poems that I produce, which often accompany my work.