Claire studied painting at Hornsey College of Art and the Royal College of Art in the 1960’s. She was awarded an Italian Government Scholarship and travelled and studied painting in Umbria. With a long and distinguished career spanning more than 50 years, Claire Spencer has consistently exhibited new work in national and regional exhibitions.
Claire was elected as an associate of the RBSA in 1980 and as a member in 1985.
She won the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists’ Centenary Prize for Watercolour in 1968 and in 1991 won the Daler Rowney Prize for a group of pastel paintings. In 2003, she was awarded the Landscape Prize at Mid Art. Claire was elected to the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1985 and to the National Pastel Society later that year. Her recent exhibitions include an exhibition of English watercolours in the Council of Europe ‘Club des Arts’ Gallery in Strasbourg and the retrospective ‘A Life with a View’ together with the publication of a book to accompany the exhibition at the Royal Birmingham Society’s galleries in Birmingham.
She works in many different media although she is best known for her work in pastels. The landscape has been the source of inspiration throughout her working life and in spite of the difficulties presented by changing light and weather she prefers to work out of doors.
Commissions in 1971 included Mercia Kingdom panels for Esso Motor Hotel, Coventry, and The Globes, panels for Esso Motor Hotel, Edinburgh. Mixed shows have included the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford. She has exhibited widely as a solo artist and now lives in Bewdley, Worcestershire.