Claire is a textile artist whose work involves mixed media techniques working in an illustrative manner.  Rather than being material or technique specific she utilises an inventive broad approach to the drawn mark whether it is made through traditional drawing materials or the use of stitch and fabric.

She graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1983 where she specialised in embroidered textiles.  The materials she works with include paint, papers, metal, thread and materials found in bins or those that are old and precious. 

Her work has an illustrative quality with its inspiration rooted in the everyday. Her current fascination is the theme of making do and mending with inspiration from dressmaking techniques, labels, packaging and associated graphics. Drawing is integral to her approach in creating combinations of mixed media components. Through stitching and structuring fabric she creates further compositional textile drawings, which are deeply rooted, in a narrative tradition.

An open-minded approach to working practices has allowed her to work in the fields of illustration and in textiles for exhibitions and commissions.  Recent funding from the Scottish Arts Council has enabled her to move in new directions experimenting with digital print techniques which allow her to build on her skills in illustration and to fuse hand skills and new media techniques.

She is currently illustrating and writing a children’s picture book and producing new work using digital print / stitch/ mixed media for an exhibition of work by seven Scottish textile artists in Itami, Japan  in June/July 06 being organised by textile artists James Donald and Fiona Hutchison.

She will be showing work in the ‘Image Nation’ illustration exhibition at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow from 25 February to 1 April 2006.