Claire Farrell
Artist
Claire is a representational artist building on the tradition of nineteenth century artists such as Joaquin Sorolla, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Edgar Degas and James McNeill Whistler. These are her favorite artists.
What motivates anyone to become an artist? That is a difficult question to answer, and it may have as many different answers as there artists. In Claire Farrell’s case, she simply fell in love with making art and her work reflects a connection to both people and place. In the case of her landscapes, she strives to capture a mood instead of reporting a particular scene. A brewing thunderstorm, the last light of a winter day, the first rays of sunshine on a summer morning or a full moon rising over a Carolina marshland are all subjects of her paintings. When she paints people, she chooses to capture an unguarded moment: playing on the beach, reading a book, writing a letter or perhaps having a glass of wine.
Claire was born in Charleston, a child in a family that had called South Carolina home for generations. Besides an aunt who was a “Sunday painter,” there was little to inspire Claire to become an artist. Her father’s choice of a career as an army officer determined that Claire would grow up an “army brat” rather than a “Southern Belle.” It was while living in Tokyo when she was 12 years old, that Claire experienced her first exposure to art. She had private art lessons in watercolor from a charming Japanese artist who arrived weekly in a French beret. Under his guidance she would draw and paint a simple still life in watercolor. She recalls that it was a fantastic opportunity and she began to develop an artist’s way of seeing. For the next 15 years, however, art was barely a pastime. It was something she would take up later, when she had time.
After earning a degree in Chemistry from Duke University, marrying her college sweetheart, giving birth to their two children, teaching school for several years, and earning a masters degree in science education, Claire had the opportunity for more art lessons. These lessons were intended to be a pleasant diversion, a night out of the house for a young mother, but they turned out to be so much more. She was hooked on art. She wanted to be an artist, but at age 30 plus, she was getting a late start.
Her passion for her new “hobby” led her to take numerous watercolor workshops from a wide variety of teachers. “If they were teaching and I could get to the workshop, I took the class.” She recalls. “I felt that I had so much to learn, I would never catch up.”
Eventually to hone her drawing skills, Claire decided to return again to college. This time she entered the University of South Carolina for more formal art training. Studying art was a big change for someone with an undergraduate degree in chemistry and many of the classes she took were necessary just to get up to speed for entrance into an advanced degree program. The focus of Claire’s studies while at Carolina was primarily in art history, drawing and printmaking. She views her years at Carolina as a period of slow steady, growth.
In the 1986, Claire and her husband, Wilson, added a large studio onto their Lake Murray (SC) home. Since that time, Claire has always maintained her studio at home. “Having space to call you own is critical for an artist,” she believes. Also, Claire began to experiment with larger work and thicker applications of paint. The logical move was from paper to canvas and from watercolor to oil.
Because of her growing interest in printmaking, she also bought an etching press and still uses the press for a variety of experimental pieces which she calls mixed media monotypes. In 1998 she had the opportunity to study in Charleston with Ron Pokrasso, a master printmaker and teacher from Santa Fe. It was at this workshop that she first began to incorporate some of her drawings and old prints, most often as chine collé or collaged elements, into the monotypes. These became a type of mixed media print. About Face, a group of artists who meet regularly to draw from a model, gave her the opportunity to sharpen her skills and to practice; she, therefore had plenty of figure drawings with which to experiment.
In 2002, Claire took advantage of an opportunity to take an extended workshop with Ron Pokrasso again, this time at Santa Raparata Art School in Florence, Italy. This particular workshop was taught, not only with Ron, but also with Dan Welden, developer of the Solarplate photo-etching process. “Being in Florence was, of course, inspirational. The class experience was equally amazing, and had a profound influence on the way my printmaking efforts were to develop. Because the Solarplate process is so environmentally safe and user friendly, I found that I was able to create etching plates in my own studio with no harmful chemicals or extra equipment. All I really needed was a sunny day and some water.” Claire does not, however, consider herself a printmaker, but more a painter who happens to use an etching press in creating a certain body of her work.
Claire continues to paint, primarily in oil, and it is in this medium that she has achieved the most success. Her work is in corporate and private collections throughout the United States, including Wachovia Bank, Coca-Cola, Duke University and the Columbia Convention Center, to name a few. She has won numerous “Best-in-Show” awards, including first place the San Diego Watercolor Society in 1989 and the annual South Carolina Watermedia Show in 2009. This was particularly meaningful since Claire was a founding member of that organization.
For the past 25 years, Claire and Wilson have had the opportunity to travel extensively. Always on the itinerary are art museums, and they both have become students of the masters. “From the Met to MOMA, I never met a museum I did not like.” She recalls. “Having been a student for so much of my life, I can say with conviction, for art, the masters are the best teachers.”
City Art, Columbia, SCFor further information, you may contact the above galleries, or contact the Claire Farrell Studio at cfarrell@sc.rr.com
