Clair Gaston
A lifelong painter, art instructor, and native Texan, Clair Gaston has been painting and teaching for 20 years in Central Texas. She holds a BFA and an MFA in Painting and Drawing. Her interests focus on natural subject matter, Oil Painting, and Botanical Illustration. Influences on her work include Dutch still life paintings; traditional and contemporary botanical artists; plants and gardening; and daily life. Gaston’s work has been featured and shown all around the state of Texas and the East Coast. She works in her studio in Round Rock, and teaches at The Art School and private classes and workshops.
Gaston states: “Whether out in nature or in my own garden, I’m transfixed by the stories a little observation reveals within even the most banal moments and scenes. A wilting flower, a sprouting stem, the spiraling swirl on a snail’s shell—the most simple surroundings reflect back the truth of our lives.
In my paintings and drawings—though everyday objects and nature are the subjects—the stories of connection, loss, love, and life lay at the core. I’m inspired by the emotion and beauty that can be conveyed in a single blossom or the sheen of a velvet table cloth. As a person of few words and many thoughts, I’m drawn to the way imagery speaks for me. An image can be a metaphor that expresses emotions like joy, grief, love, fear, or even the conflict of several emotions.
Through expressing my own relationship to the world, my artwork captures the feeling of connection without words.”
