Clare Ceprynski is a London-based artist.

From University College London she graduated with a BA in History of Art, specialising in Early Renaissance Painting.

2001 Goldsmiths College, London she completed an MA in Fine Art (Distinction) , under the tutelage of Gerard Hemsworth and Jake Chapman. During this period, she worked on a series of large-scale photographic portraits that extended our world into the frozen, constructed spaces of the life-size print. These were exhibited at numerous London shows.

Clare considers her work to be part of a continuum, and her research into art history has directly informed her practice. She began painting from life using oil on canvas, a medium that is alive with time and historical content. Her work continues to explore unconventional portraiture, investigating interpersonal dynamics between artist and model, and the psychological depth of her sitters.

Her paintings have often been compared to works from the past and from the London School, variously. She employs dynamic techniques that create a powerful sense of atmosphere with strongly contrasting light and shadow, progressive brushwork, and rich textures created through impasto. These are often life-size figurative paintings with rooms where pools of darkness become annexed extensions to the exhibition space and sitters are sentient, aware of their vulnerability yet powerful in their painted environments.

 2020, her painting Bevis was selected for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Through drawing, Clare combines memory and observation with her fascination for multi-figure compositions, using the life room as a springboard to investigate embodiment, group dynamics, and the history of drawing directly from the life model. The result, Histories, is an ongoing series of drawings composed during open four-hour studio sessions with a model.

Histories has been described as a collection of contemporary works reminiscent of Tintoretto. As large-scale drawings, they employ a free and unconventional technique to create dynamic narrative scenes, often with implied religious or mythological subject matter. The scenes are characterised by strong contrasts of light and shadow that allow the story to emerge from the paper.

Her practice also extends to rural Mid-Wales, where Histories are re-imagined in the fields. Two large series of work have been generated: Livestock, a series of drawings detailing the matriarchal hierarchy of a herd of cows, sketched daily over several years; and Hedgerow, a series of drawings concentrating on a stretch of ancient, interwoven coppiced hedgerow – an ongoing investigation into the resilience of a group.

She paints daily in her studio, working on both conceptual and commissioned work.

A full Artist CV and Exhibition List are available on request.