Artist Bio
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Clare Mears Stefanini began fingerpainting while taking pastels class, using the same technique to blend the paint similarly to pastels. After graduating with her bachelors in art degree from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, she explored using spray paint to create drip lines that would add delineation to the blended fingerpainting fields of color. She was heavily inspired by abstract expressionists Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. She is inspired by the beauty of nature from many different landscapes after traveling around the country and also living in Mexico for 6 years. Fragile and bold at the same time, the free flowing lines that cross the canvas deliberately conjure up images of jellyfish, sperm or balloons. They tend to represent the self in a specific state of mind or location. Mark-making can vary between erratic fast strokes and some that are more blended and calm, depending on the mood she was in during the artwork creation.
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Artist Statement
My most recent work explores childhood by capturing moments of a child’s life. My paintings begin as personal narratives but are universal images that many parents will self-identify. I am drawn to painting children because they are free from expectations, they haven’t experienced broken dreams or disappointing relationships. They have their whole lives ahead of them to create as they wish and my paintings focus on capturing the enjoyment or concentration or flamboyant personality in them. I like to focus on facial expression and dynamic body movement to add interest to the composition. Color is a large component to my work, I am attracted to bright colors that leap off the flat plane.