About Claire

I am Claire Foord, an emerging Australian artist. My artwork stems from a visual stimulant that may spark one idea, a technique or process evolves and in it an entirely different outcome is resolved.

My art journey really started when I was 3, well at least in a fun way, I would be nice to say I was a child protégé who never put down her brush. Although this sentiment is somewhat true I can hardly say that all I did was practice art. My childhood and teen years were full of creativity and art related activities, along with singing loudly and being a chatterbox. I treated art more as a hobby but none the less followed my heart to study at the Centre of Performing Arts majoring in Scenic Art and set production. I dabbled in many ideas of what to do when I grew up. Some serious and some silly…along with artist, was flight attendant, butcher (I liked the paper), travel writer and singing for Disney…career choices led me to think smart, but not necessarily from the heart, so I digressed and headed for a career in the corporate world where for 6 years I worked for the most part as a graphic artist and marketing manager. Many life lessons later I finally learned the lesson of following your gut instinct. Not wanting to suppress that instinct any longer in 2009 I officially put down the pen and picked up the brush to pursue my passion for art professionally.

I graduated with an Award of Merit and Golden Key Honours in my Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at University of South Australia. As a recipient of the Australian Government UMAP scholarship I was also fortunate to travel to Montreal to study Fine Arts at Concordia University.

I caught the travel bug at a very young age and you will regularly find me globetrotting and travelling being inspired by all that this world has to offer, the good, the bad, the beautiful and the vulgar. Growing up in Australia with parents in tourism we moved interstate on several occasions and always made fabulous memories travelling locally and internationally. I am a happy little vegemite, through and through, proud of my Australian heritage (throw in there a bit of German, English, Dutch, Spanish - a regular Aussie with many different genetic traces) and will always call Australia home.

I my work you see me. I have wide range of artist influences including but not limited to Brett Whiteley, Cy Twombly, Vincent Van Gogh and Jenny Saville. I draw inspiration from my travels, be they locally, internationally or on a walk around the block. I often collect little items of inspiration while travelling or walking the street and many of these items can be found within my work both literally and metaphorically. Whether it is a portrait of another or an abstract work you can always see my passion in my pieces. I’m interested in change, growth & evolution. I am drawn to reflect in my works on occurrences of transformation. The never ending subject matter that capture my creativity include; buildings, people, places, law, language, trends, personalities…it intrigues me that something or someone may exist with a role to play or an intent and over time, over the course of events, through natural or manufactured means, it or they evolve and transform to serve as a new form, function or intent, even if defunct.

I am passionate about life and believe that you have the power to forge your path. Give good and get good and I try to live by this daily. I am passionate about my artwork and hope that you will be too. I offer original artworks and works on consignment and commission. Many of my clients have more than one of my original artworks in their collections, suffice to say I think they’re more than content.

Sunshine makes me smile. So when I’m not painting you’ll probably find me soaking up some rays with, more than likely beverage in hand, over good conversation with friends and family or travelling…overseas or around the block…gaining inspiration from found objects.

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