Claire Leach Blog
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Claire Leach, born in 1988, is a Hampshire-based artist known for her exquisite landscape and nature paintings. With a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from the University of Gloucestershire and an MA from Winchester School of Art, her work showcases intricate details and layers, capturing the essence of woodlands through ink and brush techniques.
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
Well, it’s been a while! I’ve just come out of ‘maternity leave’ with my daughter. A period of several months where my online shop has been closed, I haven’t written a blog post or sent a newsletter, I haven’t posted on my art focused Instagram account or Facebook page and the only tweets I’ve written are ‘good morning’ ones or the occasional ‘from the archive’ with old work attached. It’s felt very strange to not have my business running in the background of family life but has also felt extremely freeing. I’ve still been thinking about art and my work, I don’t think an artists mind ever rea ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
Finally, after booking our trip in 2019 and having to postpone twice we were able to take our two week trip to the Scottish Highlands in April. The holiday was as inspirational and awe-inspiring as I’d hoped, we spent most of the trip walking in the vast landscapes; through forests, past waterfalls, scrambling up winding steps and over rocks and boulders. One day was spent aboard the Jacobite steam train from Fort William to Mallaig, another atop a mountain which we got to by gondola - all very exciting for our three year old (and ourselves of course).
Rather than rewrite our busy itinerary I ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
In July my university friend Patrick Bull contacted me asking if I’d like to take part in an exhibition in Marlborough with Wiltshire Artists. Patrick and his wife Karolinka had taken over the organisation of the groups annual summer show and wanted to invite some new artists to take part.
I decided to make some new ink and brush drawings especially for the exhibition which was to take place on august bank holiday weekend. I had been on a hot summers day walk in Micheldever Woods and had taken some photographs of the woodland which I thought would translate perfectly into some atmospheric draw ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
The last time I wrote a blog post titled ‘A Little Life Update’ was in 2018 when I shared that my partner and I were buying our first home together and expecting our first baby. I seemed to share a little more personal news back then and as 2018 was ‘pre-children’ I had a lot more time to write so my journal entries were looking pretty healthy with lots of artist interviews as well as other musings.
I didn’t share much about the next life update that we had which was moving from our first home to our second in June 2021. Mostly because our first home together didn’t end up being the exciting n ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
An exhibition at Andover Museum and Museum of the Iron Age in Hampshire inspired by the beautiful and historic Danebury Hillfort, near Stockbridge in Hampshire.
I was invited by Sarah Maddison to take part in the exhibition, over the course of a few months I visited the site to photograph the landscape with specific focus on the trees. I returned and painted en plein air while also taking in the rich atmosphere of the environment. Danebury was once an Iron Age Hillfort, the site is perched high on a hill with commanding views over the Hampshire countryside. I made some loose ink drawings insp ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
I'm a curious type; I like to know what informs an artist. Who or what do they look to for inspiration? How do they work? Each month I will be asking an artist I admire a few questions, this month is Sherrie-Leigh Jones.
Falls at Dusk, 38.5cm x 28.5cm, hand finished screenprint with graphite powder and ink
Sherrie-Leigh, your landscape, travel and nature inspired prints are enchanting. I’m curious to know how you came to print making as your primary method of art making?
When I left art college, I actually started a degree in illustration but didn’t stay on the course that long as it wa ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
I'm a curious type; I like to know what informs an artist. Who or what do they look to for inspiration? How do they work? Each month I will be asking an artist I admire a few questions, this month is Kamaria Pryce.
Peace V, approx 20cm x 15cm, gouache on paper
Kam, since first discovering your work I was enchanted by your landscape paintings which have a calming and peaceful quality to them. What is it about recording the natural landscape that appeals to you?
One of the reasons I love being out in nature, is that it evokes a sense of calm and quiet emotionally, mentally, and for me, sp ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
Recently I was in the process of making a drawing that I was really pleased with. It was a piece made in fine liner pen, inspired by a beautiful woodland in Berkshire. I was using a photograph I’d taken to aid composition but the bulk of the drawing was made up of hundreds of tiny lines, marks and details - a bit of an improvised squiggly mess that works as a perfect shorthand for the tangly undergrowth and crisscrossing branches. It’s a technique I’ve utilised in many drawings over many years.
There was a particular part of the drawing that I was procrastinating over, in the distance were so ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
I’ve spoken about the Forest of Dean before, it’s a place that has captured my heart so vividly and inspired so many of my drawings that I find it’s quite often in my thoughts. This November I was able to take a last minute trip to the Forest of Dean with my little family, a Monday to Friday break staying in a cabin on the very site that my parents used to take me to on weekend caravan holidays.
As is always the case whether it be a whistle stop day trip or a longer stay I inevitably take hundreds of photographs, the golden hues of the forest in autumn sing to me like silver does to a magpie ..read more
Claire Leach Blog
8M ago
Last Monday I was pinged by the NHS app and told to self isolate, it was annoying timing as my partner was going to be off work for a few days and we were planning on having a few little adventures - since moving home in June we’ve been so busy with unpacking and decorating that we’ve hardly explored our new town together or spent much quality time together as a family.
I took a rapid lateral flow test which came back negative and then after sulking for a bit I decided to turn being housebound into a positive by getting my pens out.
A few weeks ago I was invited to exhibit with Chalk’s Gallery ..read more