ARTIST STATEMENT
Hello, my name is Claire Gill. I am a British artist exploring the landscape through contemporary photomontage. I create digital photomontages in Adobe Photoshop, which I exhibit and sell as limited edition fine art prints.
The Power of Landscape
I am drawn to the landscape because of its power to transform how we feel – to bring calm, balance, and clarity. Through my photomontages, I seek to create spaces of reflection. I invite the viewer to step into a landscape that is both real and imagined, and perhaps to find a sense of peace within it.
Photography as Connection
Photography enables me to see, explore, and connect with the world. Like many of us, I use my camera to record what draws my attention such as scenes I want to remember from day trips, walks, and holidays. Alongside wider views of the landscape, I am especially fascinated by weathered surfaces on boats, peeling paint in doorways, graffiti marks on walls, and other overlooked patterns in the environment. I find beauty in these incidental marks and often build them into my work as more abstract elements.
From Painting to Photography
Some years ago, I thought I would be a painter. I began assembling my photographs as digital collages to inspire paintings, but I fell in love with the process before I ever picked up a brush. Working digitally allows me to reimagine my photographs, cutting and layering them to build new visual landscapes. Each composition may contain over sixty separate layers, holding traces of the places that inspired them while also leaving room for imagination.
Process and Practice
I often work on several photomontages at once, letting each evolve in its own time. The process is slow, meditative, and intuitive—like solving a puzzle of how the pieces might fit together. I do not plan my images. As a neurodiverse person, planning has never come naturally; instead, my work emerges through an iterative rhythm of adding and subtracting until balance is found. The piece is finished at the moment nothing more is needed—when all elements are resolved and in harmony. The joy lies in discovery: finding out what the image will become.
2026 | Artists Open Houses, West Hove, East Sussex
2026 | Print Fair Southwold Gallery, Southwold, Suffolk
2026 | Spring Tide Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable, Kent
2025 | Between Air & Earth Start Brewery Gallery, Lewes, East Sussex
2025 | Landscapes JP Architects, Brighton, East Sussex
2025 | Mixed Summer Exhibition Southwold Gallery, Southwold, Suffolk
2025 | Summer Exhibition Part 1 Bircham Gallery, Holt, Norfolk
2025 | Printmaking Exhibition Byard Art Gallery, Cambridge
2025 | The Wonder of Trees Yew Tree Gallery, Cornwall
2025 | Artist Open Houses West Hove, East Sussex
2025 | Printmakers Exhibition Bircham Gallery, Holt, Norfolk
2024 | Art Fusion Denbies Wine Estate, Dorking
2024 | Benenden Art Fair Benenden, Kent
2024 | Artist Open Houses West Hove, East Sussex
2024 | Lindfield Arts Exhibition Lindfield, West Sussex
2024 | Southwold Print Fair Southwold Gallery, Southwold, Suffolk
2023 | Kent Painters Group 30th Anniversary Show Kingdom, Penshurst, Kent
2023 | Guildford Arts Society Summer Exhibition Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
2023 | Lindfield Arts Fair King Edward Hall, Lindfield, West Sussex
2023 | Artist Open Houses West Hove, East Sussex
2022 | Artist Open Houses West Hove, East Sussex
2021 | South East Open Fairwarp, East Sussex
2021 | Royal Society of Marine Artists Mall Galleries, London
2021 | Worthing Open 21 Worthing Museum, Worthing
2020| Southwold Print Fair Southwold Gallery, Southwold, Suffolk
2019 | Spring Light Exhibition Lombard Street Gallery, Margate, Kent
2018 | Ten Lombard Street Gallery, Margate, Kent
2018 | Kent Painters GroupExhibition Sevenoaks School, Sevenoaks. Kent
2018 | Royal Society of Marine Artists Mall Galleries, London
2018 | Texture, Pattern & Colour Lombard Street Gallery, Margate, Kent
2018 | On Margate Sands Lombard Street Gallery, Margate, Kent
2017 | 25th Anniversary Show Henry Paddon Gallery, Eastbourne, East Sussex
2017 | Royal Society of Marine Artists Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
2017 | Summer Show Southwold Gallery, Southwold, Suffolk
2017 | Sea More Lombard Street Gallery, Margate, Kent
2016 | Royal Society of Marine Artists Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
2016 | Summer Exhibition Stark Gallery, Canterbury
2016 | Tunbridge Wells International Art Fair Assembly Halls, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
2016 | Claire Gill; New Works Lombard Street Gallery, Margate, Kent
2016 | Early Summer Show Bircham Gallery, Holt, Norfolk
2016 | Mixed Show What if Gallery, Bluewater, Kent
2015 | Landscapes What if Gallery, Dartford
2015 | Bexley Arts Open Stables Gallery, Hall Place, Bexley, Kent
2015 | Best of Kent Showcase Bluewater, Dartford, Kent
2014 | Summer Show Lombard Street Gallery, Margate, Kent
2014 | Group Show Sulgrave Manor, Banbury, Northamptonshire
2014 | Summer Show Bircham Gallery, Holt, Norfolk
2014 | Seascapes Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
2014 | Where the Land Meets the Sea Trinity Theatre Gallery, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
2013 | Autumn Show Henry Paddon Gallery, Eastbourne, East Sussex
2013 | A1 Open Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable, Kent
2013 | Sevenoaks Visual Arts Open Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks, Kent
2013 | Scene-Unseen Margate Gallery, Margate, Kent
2013 | Seeing through Whitstable Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable, Kent
2013 | Mary Portas Shop Window Margate High Street, Margate, Kent
2013 | Summer 2013 Coastal Gallery, Lymington, Hampshire
2013 | Duo with Barry Feldman Show Off Gallery, Whitstable, Kent
2012 | Summer Exhibition Serena Hall Gallery, Southwold, Suffolk
2012 | Seascapes The Deeson Group, Canterbury, Kent
2012 | Seascapes Margate Gallery, Margate, Kent
2011 | Beside the Sea Margate Gallery, Margate, Kent
2011 | Retro Vintage Classic Margate Gallery, Margate, Kent
2010 | Summer Show Serena Hall Gallery, Southwold, Suffolk
2010 | Seascapes & Wallscapes Chandler Wright Salon, Blackheath, London
2010 | Seaside Margate Gallery, Margate
2010 | Land Sea Sky Ingoldsby Gallery, Margate
I regularly exhibit work at the following galleries;
Southwold Gallery | Southwold | Suffolk
Cove Gallery | Weymouth | Dorset
Bircham Gallery | Holt | Norfolk
Henry Paddon Gallery | Eastbourne | East Sussex
Stark Gallery | Canterbury | Kent
1993 – 1995 | Royal College of Art | MA in Knitted Textiles | Awarded distinction for thesis
1991 – 1993 | Central Saint Martins Collage of Art & Design | First class honours degree in constructed Textiles
2025 Shortlisted for the VAA International Exhibition & Scholarship Award
2024 Best Seller on Artfinder
2020 Work ‘Of the Sea’ becomes part of the Art Collection at Historic Dockyard Chatham
