CLARE BRODIE

Music by Lovers At Dusk via Soundstripe

CLARE BRODIE

PAINTER

Sydney, Australia

It’s a landscape I would dream of. Blocks of colours form trees, roads, a red sun. It looks simple but it’s impossibly complex to conceive and paint. Each block is perfectly opaque and smooth - all lines impeccable. It’s the painting that has been gracing the main room of my house for a few years now. It brings a playfulness and it’s a homage to Clare’s motto, which I could make mine: “Colour is precious”. Read More

Photos I took that day…

Featured

See full gallery

An eternity ago, or so it feels, I decided to widen my horizons by offering every month, for a year, a special deal on my Instagram: a barter. One film of mine against a work of art, or a year worth of candles, booze, or all sorts of things indispensable to lead a good life. One of these months I chose Clare Brodie and against a film (I made two) and a series of photos of her and her studio, she painted the bubbly landscape above mentioned.

What I loved immediately was Clare strange technique of placing her canvas on a rotating easel. She showed me how it worked. She grabbed a stick with a ball attached to the end, leaned it delicately on the canvas, rested her wrist on the stick and with much focus and concentration, applied paint within the pre-drawn blocks of colour. She turned the canvas half an inch by half an inch, continuously to fill up the block with exact gestures. Observing it was quite nerve wracking. It reminded me of the disaster caused by “going over the line” in primary school’s drawing classes back in France. A big no-no… I’d get my tongue dry (the results of poking it out with the effort), a stiff neck and hand.

Claire’s work is no primary school drawing. She creates large conceptual compositions with her very own visual language using high-density saturated colours. She strips the world of its complexity to painstakingly represent it bare and beautiful.

I’m so please that she accepted to be part of my series of 30 people who make the world more beautiful. Get to know her better with me and these few words she shares with us.

Connect with Clare

@clare.brodie | clarebrodie.com

INTERVIEW

My mum is Scottish so Clare is Gaelic - she was very happy when I married a ‘Brodie’ which is also Scottish.
I was born in Karachi, Pakistan. Although I have no memory of my birth country however the influence are still with me. In my home I have beautiful fabrics, silk rugs and furniture.
Sadly, I only speak English.
I am a conceptual block colour painter - distilling the complex.
I can think of two artists and I am not sure who was first.
Brett Whiteley’s ’Self Portrait In The Studio’ which won the Archibald in 1976, his concept of his studio being him blew me away, and his use of ultramarine blue I could swim in….
and I saw a small Geoffrey Smart in a commercial art gallery, it had his signature high intensity oil drums, I remember getting up ‘real close’, mesmerised.
As a child I wanted to be an artist, I should have listened to her she knew.
I flew to New York to catch up with a boy I met in Bruges.
Painting absorbs all of my senses - it’s a full body experience - also when I take up something new - recently my local pool shut down so I had to join the gym - when I know nothing I really have to concentrate so all other constraints evaporate.
I did a summer course at NAS with Adam Cullen.
After the week we all pinned our work up on the wall - after visiting the other studios
I came back and found a note saying someone wanted to buy my work - I passed it by Adam, and he said sell - and do more. I asked if he thought I could be an artist - and he said wait until you really, really have to do it - and that is what I did.
At each rise, there is a challenge to overcome to get to the next part of the climb - it’s continuous.
‘Treat’ - when you reach a goal, or something goes well, it’s important to celebrate. My son knows if an art work sells, we are heading out, it may just be to the local patisserie - but it is marking the moment and an accomplishment no matter how small.
I am at a point of my life I am re-evaluating my values. On a personal note I try be of service and I have a strong work ethic - I also have art values ‘colour is precious’ and ‘restrained beauty’.
Things seem to be shifting at the moment.
Colour, I am a bowerbird for collecting colourful objects and books. They become part of me. I am trying to set them free, the local book library is one of the most gorgeous concepts, read and leave for someone else.
My studio, once I had it, everything else followed.
I love textural, earthy food - nothing refined or elegant - plant based - so a tangy salad - and I have an unreasonable love of peanut butter- on bread, cracker or just by the teaspoon!
Bound By Creativity How Contemporary Art Is Created and Judged By Hannah Wohl.
This book articulates the art world, gives definitions and articulates what
I also read A Bigger Message Conversions with David Hockney by Martin Gayford.
My son and I have just finished the complete ’The Big Bang’, I am quite bereft.
A personal binge: I thought Deadloch on Prime was a great take on the crime genre - no female bodies turning up!
I rarely go to the cinema but I just saw Wonka with my son. It has almost blanked out Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was an insult .
But nothing compares to Green Wilder’s genius in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
I rarely listen to music, I know that’s weird - I am an auditory person - I like words, so I listen to podcasts. I listened to all of ‘The Great Women Podcast with Katy Hessel and onto The Conversation Art Podcast with Michael Shaw.
Alive, I think David Hockney, the way he’s see is very interesting - his continually development and embracing technology is inspiring.
On my studio wall I have a work by Lara, it is so joyful - I met Lara when I worked as an art facilitator at Boonah, a warm studio that fostered the practices of artist with disabilities.
I love spending time in the UK, the majority of my extended family are there - the liquid green resonates with me - and then it is very easy to drive over to the continent and holiday in Italy where umber glows and the food is amazing.
The most imminent thing is my family and I are about to embark on a road trip to Adelaide - I am looking forward to getting back into sketching, and day dreaming. Then I will be excited to build next year’s body of work around the trip.