Lucy Clare Spooner
DETAILS
Who — Lucy Clare Spooner
Where — New York, NY
Shop — https://www.lucyclarespooner.com Instagram — @lucyclarespooner.artist
Meet Clare.
Originally from Williamsburg, Virginia, Lucy “Clare” Spooner lives and works in New York City. Her impressive educational history includes studying art at the University of Virginia, the Marchutz School of Fine Art in Aix-en-Provence, the New York Studio School, and the Art Students League of New York. Clare’s dancing brushstrokes and emotive use of color are highly informed by art history, in which she has a deep interest. Matisse, Cezanne and Monet stylistically spring from her artwork as she creates - whether she is creating en plein air sketches of animals or elbow deep in an oil landscape.
While leaning intentionally into all that can be learned from the Masters style, Clare inserts subjects that call on her own Virginian roots - elevating Americana subjects such as chickens, country highways, and oysters to that of historical importance. In addition to her own practice and the commissions she takes on yearly to commemorate special places, pets and moments for clients, Clare teaches art herself - passing on the lessons from the great artists of history to future generations.
“Mostly my advice would be to keep the joy in the work. Taking a passion and turning it into a livelihood can be difficult… to keep the joy in my work I’ve branched into other media, turned down work that I didn’t feel was a good representation of what I wanted to put out (hard to do), and saved some things just for myself (like painting my self portrait, making studies) so I have things I’m working on that aren’t for sale.
That last bit has been so important because I’m really able to explore with the work and feel much freer than I would if I were always making work with the intention of selling! This way I’m able to keep feeding my soul with my painting practice and also support myself… a win-win.”
