Spring Onion

Claire Shakespeare

The lightness of the composition, and the gorgeousness of the colours, combined with the roughness of tactile mark-making makes for an interesting combination in Claire’s work. The artist brings clarity to the process: the surprising placement of colour, the unexpected introduction of unconventional materials – such as house paint, enamel, charcoal, or paper – are harmonised whilst leaving an identifiable trail of their history. These elevating paintings instantiate balance through imperfection, a constant ‘starting again’ as the artist renews her approach.  

Elusive titles are indicative of happenings and objects, physical spaces of the land and the body. They have the wide catchment of good abstract art, being both evocative and capacious. As in Lee Krasner’s work – the pre-eminent abstract expressionist of the 20th century – the impressive dynamism they show is tempered by a lightness of touch, tinged with humour. They recall Krasner’s collaged works, and also her later cycles of large-scale abstractions, where you can almost see the diminutive painter laying down the brushwork across the spacious canvas. So you the viewer can’t help but get involved in her process. Claire Shakespeare’s aesthetic quests are also large-scale, but well suitable to a living space.