Claire Botterill 

Claire's journey began during her ceramics studies, where she fell in love with the translucency and vibrancy of watercolours. Over the years, she has developed a unique technique that combines these mediums to create stunning, textural artworks. In this interview, Claire shares her creative inspirations, her artistic evolution, and insights from her extensive experience teaching and exhibiting across the UK. 

Can you tell us a little about your background and how you got started in art? And what drew you to the mediums you use?

I was in the first year of my ceramics degree and watercolour painting was not on the curriculum in the art foundation course. My fellow student had a bijoux box of Windsor and Newton watercolours. I experimented with her paints and fell head over heels in love with the translucency and pure colour so I started using watercolours for designing my ceramics and glass.

The discovery of how to make the appearance of a shimmer of light on a distant ocean by drawing with a candle on a rough (NOT) watercolour paper really caught my imagination. The wax marks breaking through the tints of watercolour was something I was really inspired by. This developed into a direct relationship between the 2D my drawings and 3D my ceramics.

I used Crayola crayons and applied all the beautiful rich colours and discovered how they enhanced textures in architectural drawings and gave rise to many more applications.

The inclusion of Parker Quink in the drawing process holds all the elements together for a harmonious effect.

Summer by Claire Botterill

Can you walk us through your typical process for creating your pieces, from initial concept to finished piece? Do you work from images? and what qualities make a good reference image for your work? 

First and foremost I work from something that plucks at my heart strings, this could be a glimpse from my garden, the country roads that surround us or a still life that speaks volumes. Colour and contrast play a big part I take a lot of photographs and select the parts that interest me.

My work constantly evolves as I revisit subjects, when I first paint them I have a host of other ideas that could be used within the process, and I have a strong need to get them out of my system.

Cornish Dwelling by Claire Botterill

Moving forward I relish creating new ideas and taking my students through the process, during my weekly classes, monthly workshops and workshops for art societies there is always something new I want to share. For example, in week 3 of my 5 week course, held in my garden studio, I do a master class in which I take my students, step-by-step, through exploring the experience of using water soluble oils, acrylics, pastels, charcoal, watercolour pencils etc and lots of application techniques.

The seedhead series of paintings are drawn from life and I grow a lot of these. I like to teach observational drawing and when Art Societies request a seedhead work shop I take my large box of seedheads with me also encouraging them to bring their own choice. Here is a brief description of the process.

1 Once you have a good drawing it is like a framework to be creative on.

2 Draw subject in water colour pencil.

3 Sketch over loosely with the Parker Vector pen.

4 Consider where you want your water colour not to run and apply your wax.

5 Have your water colour paint mixed and tested

6 Using clear water apply a wash around your image not touching the ink yet.

7 Gently touch into the ink with your wet brush and watch the ink flow.

8 Leave to dry.

9 At this stage you can choose to add water colour or not.

Seedhead series, Painting 4 by Claire Boterill

What brands or types of wax and watercolour do you prefer, and why?

Using suitable products makes all the difference to your results. When I run a workshop I provide the same materials for the student as I use. I feel it is only fair as I want them to achieve the best that they can. Poor materials make the unexperienced student blame themselves for disappointing results far too often.

I choose to use 425gsm Bockingford NOT as my watercolour paper. I use Crayola crayons (other versions do not have the intensity of colour or the water resistance) and I take the 24 pack to teach with as it can make you more creative, the larger packs can overwhelm the beginner with too much choice. The Quink black ink I use is in cartridge form (do not use the ones labelled washable). The pen I use is a Parker Vector which was made for left or right handed people and this lovely nib will enable you to scribble in any direction much like a roller ball.

Watercolour paints vary and I wouldn’t use the cheapest. Artist quality are very good and you only need to use small amounts due to their concentration (you only need a few colours and I am always teaching how to mix colours so that the student can create the colour they want with confidence). Student quality provide good results and are a bit less expensive than artist quality. I mix most of my pallet from burnt sienna, raw sienna, ultramarine blue, lemon yellow and Quinacridone red or magenta. Other colours included in my selection are Windsor and Newton artists quality Paynes grey, Cobalt turquoise light and Sennelier orange. Now and again I dip into other colours. 

Golden and Sea Holly by Claire Botterill

Do you take commissions? If so, how do you approach commissions, and what steps do you take to ensure your clients are satisfied with the final piece? Can you share a particularly memorable or rewarding commission experience?

I enjoy commission work as it’s providing a service. The interaction between me and a client and being able to make them happy is a real win-win. The customer contacts me as they like my style and I show them a variety of what I’ve done and we can discuss from there. I keep in touch with the customer by showing sketches and photographs of the development so adjustments can be made during the process. I recently sent three portraits to America of a couple of Lurchers, Lavender and Macky, all executed in my unique style of ink, wax and watercolour.

Lurcher Portrait 1 by Claire Botterill

The Mayor of Nuneaton commissioned me to create a painting for the Mayor’s parlour. My inspiration for this commission was from my close links to the town of Nuneaton. I wanted to represent our multi-cultural society in rainbow colours around the painting. Depicting a very positive feel from the sky that give you the feeling ‘wow this is going to be a good day’. The authority of the Council house standing against this sky is almost parental to me. The pleasure that our beautiful Riversley park, art gallery and museum brings to our townsfolk and visitors is so valuable to our wellbeing. Showing pride in having a worldwide literary figure George Eliot where we have a bronze sculpture of her in the town centre produced by John Letts another local artist. Our Dandelion fountain also receives so much admiration from visitors to our town. I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to create this painting. It will initially be displayed in the Mayor's Parlour and the form part of the Borough Collection to be displayed in the Museum and other Civic buildings.

Mayor's Parlour by Claire Botterill

Claire runs workshops from her home studio in Warwickshire and at the Ten 2 Gallery in Hinkley as well as hosting demonstrations, talks and workshops across the UK. For more information visit the website here.

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