I was at the gallery today and saw all the beautiful artwork coming in to be hung on the walls.   You may notice there are few authors in the list of exhibiting artists. I have really enjoyed collaborating on some sculptures with Janeen Brian and Marianne Musgrove.  I am picking up the lettering that we will use to put poems on the walls tomorrow and have been playing with a dangerous amount of paper mache. The opening is at 7pm on friday, I previously wrote 6pm.

I am getting ready for an exhibition at Gallery M, marion called Storylines. It is a group exhibition of picture book illustrators with a few artworks by children's authors as well. I have been collaborating with a couple of writers to create poems to be written on the floor and walls. I will be exhibiting some illustrations from picture books along with my sketches and clay models I use. The opening is in a couple of weeks on friday the 6th of August and the exhibition goes until the 29th. 

I created these termite mounds while driving through the Kimberly in Western Australia and across the Northern Territory. Don't worry I was in the passenger seat. I was inspired by the shapes that the ants had built with lots of little actions like the knitting process. I would not normally post this artwork here because it isn't illustration but these little critters won an art prize. The Youthscape Sculpture Prize at the Royal South Australian Society of Art.

This is a sketch I am working on for an illustration. I enjoy all the mistakes and rouge lines. The next step is to trace it onto watercolour paper with my light box. It will look a quite different once I have painted it. I will post some of the final pictures of this project at the end of the year.

I exhibited this painting last year.  I mixed the paint with a granulation medium that makes the colours go all blotchy. After a few disagreements with the ink I conceded and let it blob all over the place. To make some of the lines more jumpy I sometimes used my left.  This may look like a bee but it is actually a butterfly with hairy legs.  

It has taken me a few years to get used drawing on the computer.  I use a graphics tablet not a mouse so it's almost like drawing with ink. I found some digital brushes that suit the ideas I have in my head, like these people with mushroom hats.   I miss the surprise splodges but not getting ink smudged all up my arms and on my nose.

 You know how it is. Someone puts a mushroom on their head and then everyone has too have one on their head.   The little guy on the end was the one who suggested adding antennas.

This is what I have been painting of late. A pair of portraits for two sisters with pigtails.  I enjoyed painting the colours on their skirts.  The dog ended up looking surprisingly like a cartoon character I used to draw in the school holidays. I made a magazine for my grandparents and it had a comic strip about a dog called 'scruffy'. I had been reading a lot of Peanuts and Snoopy cartoons.

The little one on the right is Sherbet. He is asking questions of his Uncle Herbert.  Like 'Are you my Uncle or my Great Great Uncle?' and 'Why don't rabbits have pouches?'.  Herb tells long and windy stories that are interesting but usually don't answer Sherbets' questions. 

I was reminded of this painting because I saw rabbits in the sand hills at the beach today.  Last year I had a creative season of everything in my paintings were being blown around by the wind.  I was playing around with thin layers of watercolour. 

The designs of eight new greeting cards are on display at urban cow studios. Each card has an aussie animal who are thinking cheeky things. Bilby can't work out if it's Christmas or Birthday wrapping paper and Koala doesn't read the card he just opens the present.  They can be used for most occasions.

I will have them with me at the Stirling Market this Sunday, 20th December. 

If you would like to get your portrait done you can make a time with me or just come along to the market.

 I was commissioned to create Christmas street banners for Jetty Rd Glenelg.  I snuck a few local land marks in the back ground and used bright watercolours to reflect the summertime at the bay.

I took a bit of creative license with the Christmas story.  The choir of angels appear to kids on jetty rather than Shepard and the Three Wise Men catch an old Glenelg tram.

 I found a collection of unused tourist tea towels in an op shop.  One had a sturt desert pea pattern that worked perfectly for the koala toys dresses.

   Urban Cow Studio is open 12 noon on sundays and 10 am all other days.The exhibition is on until the 3rd of January.

'Why Do Wombats Have short Legs?'

'So we can sit down and stand up really fast' Wombat said

An exhibition of new illustrations and paintings about the quirky creatures of the Australian bush. Bright and colourful oil paintings of koalas and echidnas.  Paintings with little over heard conversations and an encyclopaedia written by the animals themselves.  A display of eight new animal themed greeting cards.

 Exhibition opens 6pm Wednesday 2nd December

Upstairs at Urban Cow Studio

11 Frome Rd, Adelaide

there was a definite windy theme to my paintings. 

 I am currently putting the finishing touches on works for two exhibitions later in the year.  One exhibition will be at Urban Cow in December and the other  is a big group show in November.

 I am working on some larger oil paintings for Ms Doody's Art Show the 2nd.  The Marvellously make-believe Ms Doody presents her second annual collection of quirky and afforable works by local artists and designers.  Showcasing paintings, glassware, prints and toys.

  The artists: Carol Nicholls, Caroline Scharder, Claire Richards, Janelle Peterson, Julie Pritchard, Nichole Fenton, Peta Weisfelt, Ruth Richards,
Susan Clarkson and Tom Hermann

The exhibition will again be held at Carclew Ballroom, 11 Jeffcott St North Adelaide. 

The Opening is 6pm Friday 20th November

Continue 21st & 22nd 10am - 4pm

These little koala is in one of two little paintings on its way to two Aussie girls living in Spain.  It is hard to tell from the image but I was experimenting with watercolour on a textured canvas.  They were part of an exhibition at Glenelg last week. 

 The exhibition is now closed but we have put some paintings up as a window display.  These paintings are available for purchase online at madeit.com.au/clairerichards

Artist talk and Official Opening at 2pm
Sunday, 9th of August 2009

Opening Hours
Wed- Fri 11am - 4pm
Sat & Sun 10am - 4pm
Exhibition concludes 16th August

Open Studio Gallery
(Between Salt Cafe and Chi)

Marina Pier, Holdfast Shores, Glenelg, South Australia

Ruth Richards, Janeen Brian and I presents our art as part of the South Australian Living Artists Festival. I will exhibit book illustrations and oil paintings.  Ruth's digital photography features the colours found in nature. Janeen's sculptural mosaics combine vintage china, found objects and recycled treasures. Colour Charts is about embracing serendipitous colour patterns and exploring accidental harmonies.

Open Studio Gallery is a temporary art space at the Marina Pier and is part of the Holdfast Bay SALA program.  I will be painting on site for the duration of the exhibition.

 These are some of the artwork I have on display at Tin Cat Cafe as part of an animal themed exhibition.  The exhibition I am painting artwork for at the moment is called Colour Charts.  It is going to be held in a vacant shop front at Holdfast Shores in Glenelg in August.  The other artists will be Ruth Richards and Janeen Brian.

 It is on display until the 8th of July.

This is a new book I have illustrated.  It is writen by Kel Richards (not related) and is part of a series called Aussie Gems. This is an Aussie spin on the original Goldilocks and the Three Bears. When Goldilocks goes on an adventure in the aussie bush she discovers a house belonging to a family of koalas.