Born in Ayr Claire Harkess graduated from Glasgow School of Art in the early 1990s. Inspired by the natural world, with a particular interest for birds and wildlife, Claire spent a year at Edinburgh Zoo as Artist in residence. From there she has spent the last 20 years travelling to extreme and fragile environments, including the Arctic Circle, Svalbard, The Galapagos Islands, India, the outback of Australia, and closer to home Greenland and St Kilda.

Claire was elected a member of RSW in 2005, and won the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation Artist of the Year 2017 award. She is now living Perth.

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“Painting in water colour offers a unique directness. The essential qualities of light and energy ever present in the natural world are the very essence of the medium itself. In search of a simplicity and beauty through the painting of a line, shape, colour, the process is immediate and instinctive. Remaining true to both medium and subject, with every brush mark visible, I strive to allow the paint the freedom to speak for itself

thus creating a dialogue between myself, the viewer and the ever evolving work. “