Artist: Claire Bowen
Title: Day's Beginning
Medium: Mixed-media collage on heavyweight watercolor paper
Dimensions: 11 x 8 ½ inches
Price: $185
Artist Statement: Through bright orange, almost flame-like shapes, this work suggests light and hope pushing their way through rather more somber surroundings. The ordinariness of life, the daily grind and heavy cares—all press down upon us. And yet each day carries fresh hope and a new start.
Artist Bio: Color. Light. Wonder.
Engaged in the arts from childhood, Claire Bowen studied fine art at the University of Georgia—which included a semester in Cortona, Italy—finishing with a BA in art from Columbus State University. She has worked with artists George Stillman, Josiah L.M. Baird, and Doug Himes.
Interested in “geometry but not math,” Bowen uses pattern, color, and organic geometric shapes to create abstract images. Her subjects are often landscape, including aerial views; seascape; and florals.
Bowen works chiefly in acrylic, collage, and mixed media, and she enjoys combining disparate elements—like placing a bold block of color next to detailed drawing or using a piece of trash as collage.
Bowen’s broader themes deal with nature, freedom, beauty, and the spiritual. Ultimately, she strives for work that spurs thinking as well as feeling. “Paintings should fascinate, feel personal, and at the same time be transcendent. When the viewer approaches a painting and expects to be AFFECTED, essentially saying, ‘Beam me up, Scotty,’ and the art DOES…that’s what I’m after.”
