Cornwall Life – October 2019

Cornwall Life: August 2019Š 67

I

f you’re a frequenter of

Cornwall’s beautiful National

Trust gardens, the chances are

you’ll at some point spot fine

artist Clare Law going about her

business.

You’ll know her when you

see her: she’ll be the one

balancing on the edge of a lake,

camera in hand, eager to get

the best possible angle for the

photographs from which she

works. Or in a wooden boat in the

middle of a pond – a wooden boat

that has a slow leak, a watery

adventure she experienced

recently while seeking the perfect

view of irises at The Garden

House in Buckland Monachorum.

It’s Clare’s keen eye for the best

angle and light – and her sheer

determination to capture and

recreate it in her highly textured

landscapes – that’s earning

her national and international

recognition.

Clare, a member of the Drawn

to the Valley art collective in

the Tamar Valley, is currently

working on 20 new oil paintings

for an exhibition in London next

Spring, after winning the Visitors

Choice Award at the Royal Arts

Prize Exhibition at La Galleria

Pall Mall and Royal Opera Arcade

Gallery in London earlier this

year.

Clare and another Drawn to

the Valley artist, Tessa Jane,

had been invited to exhibit

at last February’s Royal Arts

Prize Exhibition, following the

collective’s first ever ‘Drawn to

London’ exhibition in October

2018. The prize for winning
      Visitors Choice is to have her
      own week-long exhibition at
      the gallery, with co-winner, Jo
      Holdsworth from London.
      Some of the paintings intended
      for London will be finished in
      time for visitors to view at Clare’s
      Drawn to the Valley Open Studio
      in August. Clare is one of the
      90 or so artists taking part in
      the group’s 2019 Open Studios,
      which runs from 24 August to 1
      September. Half of the studios
      are on the Cornwall side of the
      Tamar, with locations from
      Torpoint and Saltash, through
      the heart of the valley taking in
      the Calstock, Gunnislake and
      Callington areas, and all the way
      up to Launceston.
      Clare’s studio is just outside
      Callington, a few miles from

where she was brought up on the

family farm on the southern edge

of Bodmin Moor. She has been a

member of Drawn to the Valley

since 2011 and has taken part in

the open studios every year since

2012. Last year was her first open
      studio in her personally-designed
      studio.
      “I’m spending as much time
      as I possibly can in the studio
      this year, working on my pieces
      for London. But I couldn’t not do
      open studios,” said Clare. “It’s
      exciting because it will be like a
      preview of the London exhibition.
      And I enjoy showing people
      my techniques. I want them to
      understand the whole journey,
      from that moment of going on site
      and getting the photograph, to
      building up the layers.”
      It’s only when you see Clare’s
      paintings in person that you fully
      appreciate their rich textures and
      tonal values. Clare has developed
      her own technique and paints
      with a sculptural approach,
      using only a small painting knife.
      “It’s drawing with colour,” she
      explains. Her aim is for viewers to
      feel embraced by the scene, as if
      they were “standing by my side at
      that moment in time, drinking in
      the view”.
      Those views will often be of
      her favourite places: Pentillie,
      Cotehele and The Garden House:
      “These are the three places I tend
      to visit every year. I know I can
      get the variety of textures, lights
      and colours. Sometimes they
      have a luminescence that doesn’t
      look real.”
      Three of her recently
      completed paintings – Matters of
      the Heart (Pentillie), and Adrift
      and The Silver Lining (The
      Garden House) are the result of
      Clare’s patience in waiting for the
      best light – and of her sprinting
      ability. “I was at The Garden
      House and the weather wasn’t
      great,” she explains. “It was a
      cloudy day, threatening rain,
      and all of a sudden, the sun came
      out. The effect on the golden
      grasses was just amazing. I was
      in the café and I had to make a
      run for it, to get the photos of this
      glorious light and colour, before
      the sun disappeared again.”
      Adrift and Matters of the Heart
      both reflect Clare’s love of water:
      “Painting water is a brain-ache,
      but I love it. And the flashes of red
      azaleas dancing in the waters at

ART