clare-crombie-artist-crop

I’m a late “stArtist”, having worked as a musician, teacher, massage therapist, and, for the past 30 years, as a psychotherapist. I grew up in Oxford, and spent many years living in London and Edinburgh.  It was there, in my late 50s that I began drawing and painting classes at Leith School of Art and Bridge House Art in Ullapool. Since moving back to Oxford I have immersed myself more fully in art practice while continuing to work as a therapist. I studied at OVADA 2016-2019 and since then formed a women’s artist collective with fellow students. Our work together took off after we made a response to the “Intrepid Women” exhibition at Pitt Rivers Museum.

Since then, we have met regularly to inspire, encourage and nourish each other’s individual practice whilst also creating group popup shows that are crucially connected to the place they are situated in. We also look for opportunities for other interventions in public spaces (eg. an “interactive market stall” at Offbeat Festival 2022 in Oxford) and a window in a village shop.

I have used and enjoyed many different media, from casting in plaster, resin, wax and porcelain, to stitching, painting, printing, drawing and collage. My work is sometimes in response to ideas and research – working through and drawing together threads in themes that concern me deeply, or may be inspired by my interest in the place that will host our pop up show (eg. Castle Quay Shopping Centre in Banbury, Templars Square in Oxford) – or it could be in response to something I am reading, or have seen, or poetry and dreams.