Esmé Clutterbuck
Esmé Clutterbuck trained in Fine Art at Portsmouth Polytechnic, Painting at the RA Schools and Print at Central St/Martins. She works with drawing, photography and print. She has completed residencies and worked collaboratively in London, Bristol and Latvia. She has shown in numerous Recent Open and mixed exhibitions include Safehouse 2, Peckham, Irving Contemporary, Oxford, RA Summer Exhibition and RWA Photo Open. She has work in Public and Private Collections and is a member of BV Studios, Bristol
Her drawings are made on a variety of surfaces, including digital images, magazine pages, walls, flannels and domestic linens.
Esmé’s long fascination with hair led to drawings which explored the visual and cultural qualities of the subject.
Her more recent drawings, using earth pigments sourced in North Devon and Bristol are a continuation of ideas developed in printmaking. They are reminiscent of fabric designs or the celebration of rituals. They also suggest the scientific: cell formations, planets, solar systems, the cycles of life and the female body, generation and growth. There is joy in the purely optical.
Esmé has many years’ experience of teaching Drawing, Painting and Printmaking on a variety of courses from children’s workshops to Degree level and has been a Tutor at the RWA Drawing School since it began (as Bristol Drawing School) in 2007. She enjoys teaching classes where there is a diverse range of ability and experience and tries to develop and refine her ideas about teaching as she goes along. She is interested in the paradox of seeking to communicate verbally about a non-verbal language.