Kent-born Clare McEwan studied textile design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and graduated with First Class Honours in 2003. Since then she has been working as a freelance designer, investigating the use of digital photography and print media within textiles, and producing large-scale textile hangings for interiors.
In 2004 she secured a commission for these textile hangings in a Health clinic in the Emirates Towers, Dubai. She has also had solo and group shows throughout the South of England including the Millais Gallery in Southampton, Artworks MK in Milton Keynes and most recently at Brighton’s White Night festival in 2011.
In 2005, Clare was selected for the Arts Council South East Setting Up Scheme, where she held a Digital Artist Placement with Waddesdon Church of England School, Buckinghamshire. The placement provided dedicated studio time and was the start of Clare’s involvement in art education, which continues to expand and inform her artistic practice, including a ‘virtual residency’ via webcam with four schools in 2007-8 and a 6-month artist residency at St Pancras RC Primary School in Lewes, where she worked with the whole school to build a collaborative wall hanging for their new art space – a 6m x 4m piece made from recycled fabric, dyed, printed, embroidered and constructed.
Clare continues to lead workshops with both Primary and Secondary schools, in experimental photography, digital art and printmaking projects with partners such as Chalfonts Communtiy College, the British museum and Charleston House, among others, on paper-making, felt making, fabric dying and printing.
Clare is now based in Brighton at the Coachwerks artist studios, from where she also runs her own textile practice and C F McEwan scarf designs.