Clare Thorbes

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artist statement

I’m a realist oil painter of portraits, narrative works, still lifes and landscapes. I use a limited palette applied in layers with brush or knife. As I work out values, colours and compositional details, often through preliminary sketches or oil studies, I look for dynamic curves and diagonal lines to create movement. I decide on a setting and lighting effects, then assemble objects, models and reference material to support the story I want to tell. I’ve been strongly influenced by the technical and expressive brilliance of Ilya Repin, Franz Hals, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.

selected biography

Clare Thorbes is a Yukon-born fine artist who has been exhibiting for nine years. She believes that an accomplished oil painter should be able to paint anything. Her subject matter includes portraits and figurative work, still lifes and landscapes. Her versatility laid the groundwork for an ongoing series of large-scale narrative paintings that incorporate elements of several genres. This body of work is her current focus. Clare studied drawing and painting for five years with Glenn Howarth, RCA and graduated from the Victoria College of Art in 2003. She has lived in Ottawa, Victoria and Vancouver. She moved across Canada for the third time in 2006 to settle in rural Nova Scotia.