Artist Claire Hardy loves to paint…period. She paints landscapes, cityscapes and animals, but flowers are her favorite subject. Her ‘models’ are readily available and waiting in her garden. These not-so-still-lifes brim with bold color, grace and interesting composition. Claire often squeezes oil paints directly onto a canvas, mixing them as she shapes the forms, and sculpting her way from transparent dark colors to opaque lights. She then employs softer brushes to smooth and refine. Growing up in California, a middle school teacher first taught Claire how to shade, creating the illusion of form. This sparked a lifelong interest in art. While earning a business degree at the University of New Mexico, she continued to take art classes. She became a graphic designer, then continued her studies at the Art Institute of Florence in Italy, where she threw herself into oil painting. Shortly thereafter, she devoted herself full-time to her painting.