Claire Wilson
Studio Artist
2827 Sagamore Road
Toledo, OH 43606
419.474.7811

Biography

Artist Claire Wilson began painting in 1980, at first acrylics, then graduating to watercolor, collage and mixed media. Primarily self-taught, she studied Watercolor and Life Drawing with Mary Murray at the Toledo Museum of Art. She has done many solo and collaborative shows at the American Gallery, Franciscan Center in Sylvania and Toledo Botanical Garden. She is a member of the Athena Art Society, Northwest Ohio Branch of American Pen Women, Northwestern Ohio Watercolor Society and the Spectrum Art Center. She shows actively in regional and national venues, including the Toledo Area Artists' Exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art and the NLAPW Biennial Art Show in Washington, D.C. in Spring 2004. She is currently represented by the American Gallery, Kismet Art Gallery and Collector's Corner at the Toledo Museum of Art. She has given demonstrations of her techniques in watercolor and collage at the Toledo Artist' Club, Spectrum Art Center, Crosby Arts Festival, Lima Area Watercolor Society, and the Bedford Watercolor Society. She has won many awards including the Grambacher Gold Medal in 1998 and 1999, First Award (twice) in the Fifth/Third Bank Exhibitions, and Best of Show (twice) in the Northwestern Ohio Watercolor Society's semi-annual shows. Her painting "Jove's Nectar" was one of only 25 watercolors shown in the Northwestern Ohio Watercolor Society's 30th  Anniversary Exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art (summer of 1999). When she is not painting or producing commissions, she teaches piano and plays organ at Glenwood Lutheran Church in Toledo.

Artist Statement

I have always been fascinated with abstract art, the most difficult of the visual art styles. Along with my representational watercolor paintings, I developed an original technique employing paper hole punch overlaid on to a specially painted watercolor piece. Enjoying the idea of "wheels within wheels", I began to experiment with other paper and fabric media, including ribbons, lace and doilies. The development of the strip-type of painting was a natural outgrowth of this. Some works are simple, employing a variety of strips of a limited color with a lighter motif running through and forming an incidental accent to the work; others used an actual watercolor painting which was cut down into strips which were then worked with the various sub-media of hole punch, strips (sometimes in various directions), doily, lace, fabric, plain watercolor, and sometimes an imposed cut-out. The strips might then be arranged in a preset order, or not, depending upon the idea behind the work. Hopefully, the result is one that keeps the viewer coming back again and again to enjoy the work.