Claire Cansick Norfolk, United Kingdom
I make landscape paintings of poignant memories, weather and natural phenomenon while concentrating on recessive colours created with a limited palette. I exhibit all over the UK and I am an active member of the artist groups The Arborealists and ArtCan. I paint from my studio in my garden in Norfolk.
I explore my place in the world through making landscape particularly by looking at recessive colours, memory and all states of nature. Painting landscape for me has long been about putting a frame around my experience of who and where I am and what I remember about my place in the past and sometimes my dreams of the future. Artists communicate themselves whatever the subject is and it is utterly impossible separate this from the work they produce. Indeed I want to put more of myself in, it doesn’t ever feel like enough of me is going in to my paintings, I can only keep trying express and communicate more. As painting is interpretive and doesn’t communicate an exact representation of my perspective, I keep trying to close in on my point. That is where the drive to make work comes from, my attempt to be perceived clearly.
My experimentation with colour is not a contrived exercise, rather an instinctive response to my experience and emotion evoked. I use a limited palette which evolves across my work and which includes a core four colours at any time. I paint quickly to begin with, sometimes using oil sticks, in order to capture emotion and energy and will then add detail in varying degrees. I use drawings and my own photos as starting points for paintings, taking them from life, films and TV news reports, or splicing several elements together. At some point I let the painting take over discarding the source material.
After completing a BA Fine Art Printmaking at Norwich University of the Arts I continued to paint and draw developing my oil painting skills which are largely self taught through my own practice and experimentation.

Artwork
Upcoming events
-
Avant Gardeners
Houghton Hall Stables | Exhibition | 01/05/2022 to 30/09/2022
Contemporary and Country's forthcoming exhibition Avant Gardeners, will celebrate the cultivated and the designed landscape behind and beyond the garden wall. It will open at the Stables at Houghton Hall, 1 May to 25 September.
Projects and exhibitions
Details | |||
---|---|---|---|
![]() |
Tree of Life08/01/2022 — ongoing In thinking about the show at Stanton Guildhouse, I came across this quote by Goethe "All theory, dear friend, is grey," he wrote. "But the golden tree of actual life springs ever green.” In this well known quote by the German poet and philosopher J.W. Goethe (1749–1832), he is expressing a built in contradiction in our relationship with... [Read more] |
Stanton Guildhouse, Stanton | Details |
![]() |
Climate Project 202201/01/2022 — ongoing I would like to introduce you to a year long project I am about to start 2022 with a view to exhibiting it in its entirety in 2023. |
Norwich | Details |
![]() |
Trees and Woodland of Exmoor and Dartmoor01/05/2020 — 04/07/2020 A group show by The Arborealists where I showed two paintings of Exmoor's Culbone Wood and Horner Wood. |
The Museum of Somerset, Taunton | Details |
![]() |
Fake News05/03/2020 — 09/03/2020 ArtCan exhibition of works responding to the title of Fake News where I exhibited four paintings of tv news reports of climate change disasters. |
Offshoot Gallery, London | Details |
![]() |
Art Fair East 201928/11/2019 — 01/12/2019 Showed my latest paintings at this up coming art fair in Norwich 2019. |
St Anrew's Hall, Norwich | Details |
![]() |
Young Gallery Salisbury . The Arborealists02/08/2019 — 24/08/2019 Group exhibition of the Arborealists which includes my painting Backwater Dream |
Young Gallery Salisbury | Details |
![]() |
Jacksons Open Painting Prize 201908/05/2019 — 12/05/2019 The Affordable Art Fair My painting ‘Backwater Dream’ was shortlisted in the Jacksons Open Painting Prize 2019 in the top 1% of 5500 entries. Jacksons represented the painting at The Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead, London 2019. |
The Affordable Art Fair 2019, Hampstead, London | Details |
![]() |
Paint In Progress18/03/2019 — 30/03/2019 Group show of work in progress, curated by Andy Reeve. |
Anteros Arts, Norwich | Details |
![]() |
Arborealists a Collégiale Sainte-Croix de Loudun08/03/2019 — 24/04/2019 26 Arborealists exhibiting at the extensive venue in central France. |
Collégiale Sainte-Croix de Loudun, Loudun, France | Details |
![]() |
New Year Selection Chappel Galleries05/01/2019 — 24/02/2019 I was invited to submit for the New Year Selection by curators Edna and Władysław Mirecki. |
Chappel Galleries, Chappel, Essex | Details |
![]() |
Art Fair East 201829/11/2018 — 02/12/2018 Art Fair East is in Norwich and I exhibited my latest landscape paintings and drawings. |
St Andrew's Hall, Norwich | Details |
![]() |
East Anglian Arborealists01/09/2018 — 31/10/2018 Exhibition of 7 East Anglian Arborealists at the site of John Constable's The Haywain. |
Flatford Mill, East Bergholt, Suffolk | Details |
![]() |
The Arborealists21/07/2018 — 02/09/2018 Beautifully hung show which spanned all room of Black Swan Arts venue and included 40 Arborealists. |
Black Swan Arts, Frome, Somerset | Details |
![]() |
The Arborealists07/07/2018 — 04/08/2018 Group exhibition of The Arborealists including my paintings 'The Search' 'The Poachers' and 'Trespassing For Art V' |
John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire | Details |
![]() |
Wells Maltings Trust: Connection26/06/2018 — 30/09/2018 Open submission exhibition for the opening of Wells Maltings new venue in North Norfolk. My painting 'Gentleness Clears The Soul' selected. |
Wells Maltings, Wells, Norfolk | Details |
![]() |
Halesworth Gallery Opening Show 201827/04/2018 — 16/05/2018 Three artists, one room each, open the exhibiting season at Halesworth Gallery in Suffolk. |
Halesworth Gallery, Halesworth | Details |
![]() |
Spring Art Show Norwich11/04/2018 — 15/04/2018 A yearly event in Norwich showcasing multiple artists from the surrounding area |
The Forum, Norwich | Details |
![]() |
ArtRooms 201720/01/2017 — 29/01/2017 Included in the National Open Art room at ArtRooms 2017 with my artwork titled Chair. |
Meliá White House, London | Details |