Clare Brooks is a versatile artist who works in watercolour, pen and ink, collage, and acrylic. Her preferred medium is watercolour, the transparency and flow of watercolour being perfect for painting flowers, and capturing their rapidly changing shapes and colour when painting from life. Watercolour is also perfect for painting landscapes in situ recording the every changing light and weather conditions.
She trained at Birmingham College of Art and St Martin’s London where she graduated with an honours degree in fashion and textiles. It was there she developed the skills of observation, drawing, and a keen eye for colour and design. On graduation she was immediately commissioned by the Times newspaper and Fashion trade magazines to do fashion illustrations. Other commissions soon followed from major IPC magazines.
Clare worked for 25 years as a freelance illustrator covering a wide variety of subjects from book illustration to advertising, editorial, and PR. Her clients included the Financial Times, the Telegraph, the Independent, DC Thompson magazines, Mitchell Beazley and Marshall Cavendish publishers, Paperchase cards and Revlon, Leichner and Body Shop cosmetics.
For the last 10 years she has been concentrating on watercolour painting. Her love of painting goes back to childhood. Her landscapes, flower painting and still lives are painted from life where she finds inspiration in the beauty, colour and light of the natural world. She tries to capture the essence of a place or subject.
She has exhibited at mixed shows at the Mall Galleries, the Bankside Gallery, Wigmore Hall, Greenwich Theatre Gallery, the Illustrators Gallery, Smith’s Gallery in Covent Garden as well as in local galleries.
Clare accepts private commissions specialising in portraiture. She lives in north London.
All images copyright Clare Brooks
She trained at Birmingham College of Art and St Martin’s London where she graduated with an honours degree in fashion and textiles. It was there she developed the skills of observation, drawing, and a keen eye for colour and design. On graduation she was immediately commissioned by the Times newspaper and Fashion trade magazines to do fashion illustrations. Other commissions soon followed from major IPC magazines.
Clare worked for 25 years as a freelance illustrator covering a wide variety of subjects from book illustration to advertising, editorial, and PR. Her clients included the Financial Times, the Telegraph, the Independent, DC Thompson magazines, Mitchell Beazley and Marshall Cavendish publishers, Paperchase cards and Revlon, Leichner and Body Shop cosmetics.
For the last 10 years she has been concentrating on watercolour painting. Her love of painting goes back to childhood. Her landscapes, flower painting and still lives are painted from life where she finds inspiration in the beauty, colour and light of the natural world. She tries to capture the essence of a place or subject.
She has exhibited at mixed shows at the Mall Galleries, the Bankside Gallery, Wigmore Hall, Greenwich Theatre Gallery, the Illustrators Gallery, Smith’s Gallery in Covent Garden as well as in local galleries.
Clare accepts private commissions specialising in portraiture. She lives in north London.
All images copyright Clare Brooks