Claire Read is a self taught artist who was born in the West Midlands but now lives in rural Shropshire. After working full time since leaving school Claire was made redundant in 2009, and so decided to try making a living from creating art. Drawing and painting has always been a part of her life, but she never seemed to find the time when she was working. Claire initially started creating portraits in oils of people and pets, and then began to crave a change of style so decided to experiment with different mediums and styles. She was never interested in painting landscapes until recently when she started to dabble with mixed media. Claire loves the Cornish coast so took inspiration from that and uses acrylics with permanent markers and collage. Claire's artworks are brightly coloured with bold patterns and can also be humorous as she likes to add the odd cheeky seagull or two to her coastal scenes. The collage pieces used are taken from magazines, newspapers and generally whatever Claire can get her hands on that looks interesting. Rather than using random pieces of paper she likes to use lettering that is relevant to the particular area she is painting. For instance, Claire's Fowey artworks use literature and magazines that she had collected while visiting. Claire finds the work of other artists to be a real inspiration and is fascinated by how diverse and unusual their creations of the world around them can be.