About Clae
In my work, I seek elements that define and shape the essence of that person. Each mark is a token, an expression, a nuance, which pieces together their story. My work serves as a celebration, a documentation, and a tribute to the marks people make on the world. Through art, I aim to honour their legacies and the profound influence they've had on shaping our society, ensuring their stories continue to inspire and resonate for generations to come.
Born in Nottinghamshire, UK, in 1968, Clae left the Birmingham School of Art before relocating to London in the early 1990s, where the foundations of her practice were further shaped. It was here that an early engagement with sculpture gave way to a sustained commitment to life drawing and painting, disciplines through which she forged a largely self-taught and instinctive visual language.
Since establishing her portrait practice in 2013, Clae has evolved from an initial concentration on private commissions to the development of research-led projects. Frequently realised in dialogue with fellow artists and cultural institutions, these bodies of work often foreground women of profound creative significance, positioning portraiture as a form of cultural record that acknowledges their lasting importance within the social and historical continuum.
More recently, her attention has increasingly turned towards landscape, where material enquiry and formal experimentation have become central to the work. Through an expanded engagement with surface, gesture, and process, Clae explores the mutable relationships between form, atmosphere, and light. These works move fluidly between observation and abstraction, evoking spaces of memory, presence, and perceptual shift rather than fixed topographies.
Clae also teaches A Level and GCSE Art & Design and is frequently invited to tutor on portrait courses, including BA Honours in Fine Art programs and masterclass summer schools. She divides her time between Shropshire and London, where she lives and works.
Clae
Photo credit Andrew Gale Photography
Previous events & exhibitions
Exhibition of landscape works. Swanhill Studios May 2026
Art Academy London - Masterclass in Portraiture 2024
Kendal Poetry Festival 2024, in conversation with poet Imtiaz Dharker
Acquired by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery for the permanent collection 2020
Former National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, is the latest portrait from the Painting the Poets collection to be acquired by the National Library of Wales' permanent collection.
As part of the Ledbury Poetry Festival and h.Arts Festival the Painting the Poets collection will be showcased during September & October 2023 in the Poetry House, Ledbury.
The portrait of Jackie Kay 'Red, Red' acquired for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection 2021
'Air and Light' - A Portrait of Carol Ann Duffy and 'Red Red' - a Portrait of Jackie Kay hanging side by side in the permanent Contemporary Portraiture collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Course Manager at BGA, an international distance - learning school. Art & Design IGCSE and A Level qualification.
As part of the Bishops Castle Arts festival a selection of portraits from the Painting the Poets collection will be exhibited in the Town Hall Gallery. PV 10th February, 6pm. All welcome.
I will be painting the award winning poet, Jane Burn's portrait for the Painting the Poets collection. This portrait will be slightly different, however, as Jane will be painting the background. The journey of this portrait in the making is currently being documented on Facebook.
I'll be showing the Painting the Poets collection at the Kendal Poetry Festival this year. 23rd - 26th June
An honour to be painting the portrait Dame Jane Goodall DBE. Portrait sittings too place in 'lockdown' sessions via zoom.
Group show April 2022 (dates tbc) at The Chelsea Chelsea Arts Club
Tutor at Art Academy London, BA (HONS) in Contemporary Portraiture and the Self Portrait short courses.
Women in Frame in collaboration with Poet in the City as part of Venus Rising at Kings Place 2019. Exhibition & live event.
The Poets
National Portrait Gallery BP Award exhibition 2017
Editorial on the Painting the Poets collection in Studio International magazine
Editorial on Painting the Poets collection in the Kensington and Westminster paper 2020
Editorial on the Painting the Poets collection in Jackson Art
Article on "The Poets" portrait in the Mail on Sunday 2017 for the BP Portrait Award exhbiiton.
Interview on Painting the Poets collection in Sound Art Radio 2020 & 2021
"She's Gone". Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize 2017 Exhibition
"Glass Ceiling" Ruth Borchard Portrait Self Portrait Prize 2015 Exhibition
Mall Galleries exhbition, Art for Youth 2019
"Cunto" A Portrait Of Joelle Taylor, Pride in Art, annual LGBT+ exhibitions at Capital Group 2020
Recreating Archangel Michael by Guido Reni for the film director Katherine Brooks’ new movie 2015
A Portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth ll Commissioned by the Kennel Club 2013
