Avy Claire
Blue Hill, Maine
Website
www.avyclaire.com
Social Media
Instagram
How would you describe your work?
When I am working in the studio, I am creating a visual representation of what I encounter outside of the studio. To put it simply, my paintings are abstract landscapes. Thought, I feel I am capturing an energy, something I sense behind the retinal view in front of me, which I often describe as “what exists behind the veil.” I focus on my encounter, or intersection with nature, what it is to be inside that world.
I also design landscapes for private residences. There, I work to bring nature back into the land that has been disturbed due to a building project. I have a deep respect for nature’s systems and intelligence and work to collaborate with nature on these projects. This direct work with nature informs the impulse I have in the studio to bring nature back into a world that has been disturbed.
What inspires you?
Seeing something that excites to me will always be an inspiration. There is so much out there to catch my attention. And it can come so unexpectedly. I glance out a window to a view, turn my head for a glimpse, or look up at the sky, to find a shape, a color, a movement that makes me stop and take in that fleeting moment, which I trust goes into my unconscious and spills out when I need it in the studio. It is generally a relationship or juxtaposition in nature that feeds my work and living on the coast of Maine means I am often staring out at the sea and sky, and 180º in the other direction, a rich and magical forest.
Can you speak about your process?
My process is gestural and intuitive. Mark-making is a very important aspect and the tools I use have become an important part of my process. I tend to favor rubber blades and squeegees, palette knives, plastering blades, etc. and am less reliant on brushes. Having this physical relationship to my materials gives me a feeling of building something. I seek to find relationships in the marks and color that are new to me.
How did you become interested in art?
There was never a time that I was not interested in art. I had the good fortune to have parents who encouraged this pursuit by sending me to art classes at a young age. I chose to pursue art in my adult life because it has always been the most challenging thing I do and I love being challenged and seeing something new and surprising whether looking at art by others, or at what pops out of my hand in the studio.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books, or quotes?
There are so many artists to admire! I will just mention a few that that have throughout my life always held my interest: Joan Mitchell because her quick gestures speak to and create huge volumes; Bryce Marden for the way his gestures are so elegant; Marsden Hartley for how the elements of his paintings (sky, land, water, object) all have the same weight; Howard Hodgkin for his pictural freedom; Marcel Duchamp for his satirical sense of humor; Sol Lewitt for his mind. I could go on and on — this is just a summary.
Regarding quotes, I have two anonymous quotes, or rather lines I lifted from things I read, on my studio wall:
“art is not a question of taste, it is a question of proving what is real”
“painting is not any one particular story, but the place where all stories happen”
And an Einstein quote that I have in my office: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them”
