CLAIRE GRAHAM-SMITH
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Claire has a varied artistic background that brought her to work in textile art. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Canada (OCAC University today.) She studied painting and photography, then pursued culinary arts in Montreal. During her years working in food service, she also renovated two houses and several gardens.
After a few years hiatus, Claire returned to fine art ‘en plein air’ painting. She discovered raising kids conflicted with being a landscape painter. Dealing with pastels, oils and even watercolour, was a practical challenge. As a homeschool mum always open to new possibilities, her young kids showed interest in quilting. She quickly was captivated as well. For the past two decades she has focused on a range of traditional quilt making skills. These she now incorporates in her modern art quilts. From the beginning she was fascinated with antique quilts and finds tremendous inspiration. She worked at the Shelburne Museum as a quilt demonstrator for many years. More recently, she joined the Vermont Modern Quilters’ Guild and straddles the line of Modern-Art quilts, her own way. Her quilted textiles and functional stitched items are in private collections in the US and Canada. Claire makes her home in Burlington VT with her husband of almost three decades. She still enjoys gardening, cooking and traveling, especially to see textiles and learn about wine. Now empty nesters, the once young homeschoolers, have grown up to become engineers. Technique Claire stitches her quilts on a domestic machine and by hand. She gathers fabric from far and wide, including garments. Mostly cotton is used but also silks and linen. Much of her work is created directly on the design wall in an improvised style. She uses embellishments, beads and hand embroidery and quilting is freehand guided. Fiber Art Quilts are meant to be enjoyed as wall art and kept out of direct sunlight and not laundered. Commissions on request Clairegrahamsmith@gmail.com Claire Graham-Smith 802.922.2595 
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