The Artist

Statement

I make drawings, prints, paintings and small sculptures inspired by everyday life, the trees outside the window, a table, a familiar object, an overheard detail.

I start by looking closely at ordinary things. From there, the work tends to drift somewhere slightly unexpected. I build up images in layers, paint over drawing, collage into paint, mark-making woven through, so the surface itself becomes part of how meaning shifts. Shapes wobble or overlap; patterns creep in; something that began as a simple observation becomes a little humorous, or quietly strange. I’m interested in that moment when the familiar tips into the unfamiliar, a wheelbarrow casting an odd shadow, a road sign glimpsed at speed, a bird that suddenly seems to be watching you.

My sculptural pieces work in a similar way, using found and simple materials to explore how objects balance and sit together. Across everything I make, it really comes down to one thing: paying attention to what’s already around us, and finding that it’s more alive and strange than we’d noticed.

Clare Blatchford-Hanna

Clare Blatchford-Hanna is a multidisciplinary artist based in West Sussex, working in drawing, printmaking, painting and sculpture. Her work focuses on the ordinary objects and spaces of everyday life, finding the playful, strange or quietly alive in things most people walk past without a second look.

Before turning to art full-time, Clare had a long career spanning corporate management, HR, IT consultancy and running her own business, worlds away from the studio, but not unrelated to the creative strategies and comfort with complexity that her practice demands. She later studied at West Dean College in West Sussex, completing a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design followed by a Graduate Diploma in Fine Art.

Since graduating, her work has been shown at venues including Wells Cathedral, Copeland Gallery in London, and Oxmarket Contemporary in Chichester. She takes part in Chichester Open Studios and welcomes visitors to her studio in West Sussex.