Claire Brooker’s enduring fascination for gardens and natural landscapes underpins her explorations of perception in relation to specific locations. Her work involves the development of evocative images of flora and vegetation using a variety of processes and media, including drawing, photography, painting and printmaking, resulting in works on paper, canvas and wooden panel.
Intent on conveying the essence of her immersive encounters with nature, Brooker consciously adopts different modes of seeing, whether registering the focused minutiae of interlacing plant growth, the expanded views of boundless space, or the drift of garden borders. Informed by photographic processes, as well as the impressionistic effects of digital layering and randomised capture, she sensitively interprets her subjects, concerned with depicting different intensities of imagery, both blurred and sharp, suggestive of stillness and motion. Moving between printed and painted mediums – at times a complex layering of both – Brooker combines subtly blended tones and saturated applications of colour, articulating them through intuitive mark-making and textural surface treatments. Her process also involves the strategic application and repeated removal of pigment from surfaces, often resulting in ambiguous levels of ‘finish’ that express the unique characteristics of her subject.
Claire received a Batchelor of Arts in Textile Design from Manchester School of Art in 1994. With an eye for detail and skills honed in working with colours, surface treatments and spatial organisation, she has worked professionally within a broad range of creative sectors including art & design education and interior design consultancy. In 2023 she embarked upon a two year Master of Fine Art programme at West Dean College, Sussex with the intention of exploring a more personal and artistic connection to her favourite source of inspiration: the natural forms of flora and foliage.
DESIGN DIRECTION
Claire continues to work collaboratively with architects, designers, artists and makers using her creativity and intuition to develop styling concepts and original designs that achieve character, warmth, harmony and balance. To date the series of commissions undertaken includes solutions for residential properties, commercial interiors and public environments.
CV
Born 1972, Brighton. Lives and works in Sussex UK
Education
2025 Master of Fine Art, West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, Chichester UK
2007 Graduate Diploma, Manchester School of Art, Manchester UK
2002 Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Art & Design Education, Bolton Institute, Bolton UK
1994 Batchelor of Arts in Textiles / Fashion, Manchester School of Art, Manchester UK
Teaching
2004-2010 Associate Lecturer, Manchester School of Art, Manchester UK
2002-2006 Lecturer, Stockport College, Manchester UK
Group Exhibitions
2025 Soft Ground, Copeland Gallery, London UK
MFA Summer Show, Edward James Studios, West Dean UK
2024 Hot Border, Copeland Gallery, London UK
MFA Summer Show, Edward James Studios, West Dean UK
Traces, The Old Dairy, West Dean UK
2022 Summer Open, Atelier Beside the Sea, Brighton UK
2019 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London UK
2018 C h a l k s p a c e Collective, Artists Open House Festival, Brighton UK
2013 1 0 6_Collective, Artwave Festival, Lewes UK
Plumbline & Orchard Gallery, St Ives UK
2010 Plumbline & Orchard Gallery, St Ives UK
2008 Waterside Open, Waterside Arts Centre, Manchester UK
2007 100% Design / Makers Initiative, London UK
Troubadour Gallery, Manchester UK
Commissions
2017 Floral Collage, Print collection for John Lewis Partnership Spring EDIT
Floral Portraits, Print collection for King & McGaw \ John Lewis Partnership
2018 Printed mural collection, Durham USA
2014 Etched glass panel, Manchester UK
Printed design, Manchester UK
2010 Etched glass panel, Manchester UK
Glass application, Durham USA
2009 Steel panel series, Regeneration Project, Manchester UK
2007 Frieze, OFFCUT Fringe Festival, Manchester School of Art, Manchester UK
Awards
2025 Nomination for Vice Chancellor’s Award, West Dean College
2023 Edward James Foundation Bursary, West Dean College
2007 Arts Council of England, Grant for Arts
Nomination for Roses Award, Emerging Designer of the Year
Nomination for Roses Award, Product Design
Alumni Award, Manchester School of Art