Born and raised in the quaint seaside town of Bournemouth on the south coast of England, artist, illustrator and writer, Claudine Carmel, has always drawn inspiration from the sea. As she said, “I find it calming, healing and my main source of inspiration for my artwork.”

After moving to the United States, Claudine spent a decade living in California, attending school in San Francisco as well as living in Santa Monica. Although she enjoyed life in the larger vibrant communities, she longed for a more intimate seaside setting to call home. Having read quite a bit about the coastal towns of the Pacific Northwest, she eventually made the move to Bainbridge Island in 2016 with her beloved Boston Terrier, Murphy. 

Using soft and bold hews, Claudine creates landscapes, cityscapes, skyscapes, nautical whimsy and multi-layered resin art that are both dreamlike and realistic. Her expertise in using an abundance of vibrant colors combines the landscapes and the inhabitants of the land and sea with air, water, ocean and sky. 

Her paintings and resin art are infused with a sense of movement and harmony, creating a feeling of peaceful serenity to those that view her pieces. When viewed at different times of the day and in varying lighting, her pieces come alive and more often than not, new details emerge.

“My traditional acrylic art is about capturing majestic moments in nature that in real life last only seconds, and preserving them on canvas for a lifetime. Brush strokes and layers of light within a painting bring across the feeling of movement and can make a work of art seem more life-like than a photograph,” Claudine said. “In my multi-layered resin art, I create fluid backgrounds with an emphasis on visualizing the continuous movement of air currents, swirling waves or galaxies in space. The resin gives each piece a thick glossy surface like the ocean, with sparkles reminiscent of sunlight dancing on water or faraway glittering stars. These originals are one of a kind.”

Claudine’s imagination never takes a break and she’s constantly creating new pieces, trying new things and experimenting with new techniques within her resin art. 

Currently she’s concentrating on her new desert dreamscapes resin series inspired by the stunning wildlife and landscapes of the American West. “The desert is an ancient and mystical place and throughout history people have traveled to it to experience enlightenment, altered states of awareness and total isolation,” she explained. “With this series you can stargaze in the desert with holographic moons and thousands of stars while hand painted wildlife soar and leap above glittering cactus that punctuate the landscape. Beneath the many layers of resin are highly pigmented backgrounds that flow with a psychedelic palette, the primitive crackling effect evokes the feel of the dry desert floor and also symbolizes the cracks in reality.” 

In addition to the desert dreamscapes, she’s been working on Pacific Northwest inspired dreamscapes, which celebrate her love of America, where eagles soar, and wild cats and bears roam the landscape. 

She has also been working on several octopus inspired resin paintings, one of which is her largest to date, a 30”x30” piece, which is currently available at Island Life Artisan Gifts. Humming birds are also a favorite subject matter, capturing their rapid movement and delicate nature as well as their vibrant colors, and the colors of the flowers they’re surrounded by.

Going forward, she plans to paint local scenes on the water, and will do more of her “Sparkling Water” inspired pieces. She recently completed a piece called “Angels over Poulsbo”, which she painted from Manzanita beach; the painting will be available at Millstream in August.

Claudine utilizes four different painting styles; traditional acrylic, palette knife, multi-layered resin and illustration. Using hand-mixed pigments and non-toxic museum-conservation grade epoxy resin, allows her to seal and protect each piece, preserving it for a life-time. 

Claudine studied multimedia at Bournemouth and Poole College, and film production at the Arts Institute of Bournemouth, and later, screenwriting at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. Her love of art and storytelling inspired her to pen three illustrated children’s books, two of which were named Best Indie Kids’ Books of 2014 and 2015 by Kirkus Reviews: Lucy Lick-Me-Not and the Day Eaters: A Birthday Story (The fantastic tales of Lucy Lick-Me-Not Book 1), Lucy Lick-Me-Not and the Greedy Gubbins: A Christmas Story (The fantastic tales of Lucy Lick-Me-Not Book 2), and Journey (a ballooning adventure). 

Her paintings are available locally at Millstream and Island Life Artisan Gifts, or you can purchase through her website, Claudine Carmel, Author, Artist, Illustrator

She also offers hand-embellished, resin coated canvas prints (which are similar to the originals) and traditional Cold press paper prints.

Claudine’s work has been exhibited at the Colors of Humanity Art Gallery and the Bainbridge Island Library’s First Friday Art Walk exhibit.

To keep up with her, follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

ABOUT MARGARET MILLMORE. Margaret Millmore is a supernatural fiction author and blogger, living on Bainbridge Island with her husband, Bryan. Her first published works were flash fiction, The Welcome Home and Untitled – Luke N. Goode,  which were featured on Bay Area artist, Kenny Mencher’s blog. In 2011 she published her first full length novel, since then she’s published a three book series, another novel and her current series (via Next Chapter Publishing – formerly Creativia Publishing) What Haunts Me (Ghost Killer Book 1); The Edge of the Cemetery (Ghost Killer Book 2), which was awarded the August 2016 Book of the Month award by Long and Short Reviews; and What Hunts Me (Ghost Killer Book 3). The majority of her books are set in San Francisco where she lived—previous to island life—for over 26 years. Her preferred writing genre is supernatural fiction, with the exception of her time-travel novel, The Dragonfly Door. In addition to her novels, Margaret writes a blog, called The Island Wanderer – which focuses on people, events and businesses on Bainbridge Island: https://theislandwanderer.com/blog/. All her books can be found on her website and her Amazon Author page.