Featured Artist Susan Clare

The translucent colors and flowing lines of watercolor artist Susan Clare’s paintings highlight the timeless beauty found in nature. To view more of her artwork, please visit her website.

 

 

It has been my privilege to spend most of my adult life living in Jamaica; at first, literally immersed in nature, as a scuba diver, and later as an artist/mother enjoying our little hilltop paradise. I’m aiming for sustainability, but with modern home comforts. We collect all our own water, heat it from the sun and grow much of our own fruit and vegetables. We have a lovely “jungly” garden with winding paths and ponds, where I wander in the mornings to kick-start the creative flow or share an aromatic blue mountain coffee and a half hour meditation with my artist neighbour.

 

 

I hope to share, through my paintings, some of the awe and mystery I feel from living close to nature.

 

 

Back in the United Kingdom, the light is soft and gentle, and colours subtle. I want to inspire people to honour places for wildlife, especially small, muddy ones; riverbanks, wildflower meadows, the needs of bees, variety of local apples, replanting hedgerows between organic fields.

 

 

We feel more protective of something to which we feel connected; so if my art reminds people of the beauty of nature, I hope they will, in turn, think about shopping more consciously, to help protect our environment.

 

 

Like running watercolours, nature is in constant flow, from one thing to another. Our tendency is to label and categorize every aspect, but mystery can be more intriguing. The paintings I love best are those where I haven’t explained everything.

 

 

Adding elements of mixed media (gesso, ink, pastel and texture from natural objects) creates ambiguous passages of pattern and light.

 

 

My goal is timelessness. Every time we forget ourselves, give ourselves over entirely to feeling and experiencing the moment, like a meditative moment, it allows a magical transformation to happen. Afterwards, we are calm and smiling and the day seems a bit brighter. I hope looking at my paintings is uplifting, in that way.

 

 

I get excited about watercolours doing their own thing and I love to employ dribbles, splashes and happy accidents. Recently, I have been enjoying using acrylics, which is helping me to speed up and respond to colour and light more instinctively.

 

 

I have found a unique perspective, living on two continents: I find that whichever one I’m in at the moment, feels like reality and the other has a dreamlike, intangible quality. Yet, thanks to the genius of the internet, I maintain a presence and connections in both places at once. It makes me ponder on the interconnectedness of all life.

 

 

I enjoy teaching workshops. I will be taking groups of painters to Jamaica to share in our amazing natural beauty spots; waterfalls, reef snorkeling, yoga, caves, lush gardens and old stone buildings – inspiring and therapeutic! I feel immensely grateful to be able to bridge these two worlds and to share the experience through painting.

 

Artist Susan Clare invites you to follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Etsy.

 

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