What do you do?
Primarily I paint, but currently I am also enjoying experimenting with installation work and embroidering the surface of painted canvases.
When did you get into it?
I have made things and painted for as long as I can remember. I think I was about seven when I decided that I wanted to be an artist. The other option was to be a palaeontologist, as dinosaurs were my other passion at that age.
Who or what influences you as an artist?
My biggest influences are the friends and artists I met through the ANU School of Art and through the Canberra art spaces. The “things” that my paintings stem from are usually situations or environments that I feel have some sort of tension for me to explore.
What’s your biggest achievement/proudest moment so far?
I was very proud to have sold a good number of my paintings in the School of Art graduate exhibition last year. Selling art is not the reason that I paint at all, but it is nice to know that other people like what you’ve made and want to support you.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to keep making art. Next year I hope to also be employed as a teacher, and to eventually do some more travelling. I’d like to live, teach and paint oversees for a while.
What makes you laugh?
Good jokes and bad puns.
What pisses you off?
1950s cowboy movies.
What’s your opinion of the local scene?
I love the art spaces in Canberra, and I think that there is such a rich and diverse quality of artwork around at the moment.
What are your upcoming exhibitions?
Right now I’m in a joint exhibition at the Belconnen Gallery (in the Belconnen Community Centre) called Spaces Against, which is on until the 20th of September. My solo exhibition Blue Blue Electric Blue will be in January 2011 at the Grammar School Gallery.
Contact info:
claelliott@gmail.com, www.clairegallery.limewebs.com .
Image caption: Claire Pendrigh Pink Night Diptych 2010
