About Claire Mills
Claire Mills is a colour pencil artist who works from her studio in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire with assistant Peggy, an English Cocker Spaniel. Her highly detailed, sensitive drawings pay homage to her passion for companion animals.
Bright eyed dogs, watchful cats and much missed pets are all brought to life with thousands of layered pencil strokes – capturing not just a likeness of the animal but also expressing their vibrancy, spirit and character.
Claire has created many commissioned pet portraits. Each piece involves hours of practiced technique that plays to the strength of her medium – fine art pencils that capture fur texture, eye colour and the smallest of details that make each pet unique.
As a child, Claire could often be found doodling and crafting. She has a BA Hons in Three-Dimensional Design, specialising in Ceramics & Glass, from the University of Central England and successfully ran her own arts & crafts business for nearly 10 years. After a break from fine art of many years and harbouring a secret desire to explore the possibilities of drawing - she attended evening classes at a local arts centre, where she fell in love with the potential and unique attributes of colour pencils.
While her drawing technique is largely self-taught, Claire enjoys participating in a range of workshops and creative events to further her skills and develop her use of other media. She is currently exploring work with gouache paint and watercolour pencils.
Claire is a member of the UK Coloured Pencil Society and was juried into their Open Annual Exhibitions in 2018 and 2020. UKCPS is an organisation dedicated to promoting excellence in coloured pencils as a fine art medium. Her work has been published in the books CP Hidden Treasures Volume 4 and 6, in addition to featuring in Ann Kulberg's COLOR magazine.
