Claire Emery
Claire Emery is an Artist, Naturalist and Explorer based in Missoula, Montana. Her studio is outdoors, and her heart is as well.
Spirited, bold, and colorful, her woodblock prints convey the vitality of life lived close to nature and outdoors as much as possible. The wild and working landscapes of home have been her studio for 30 years. Printed on 100% recycled paper in Montana, her notecards and wall calendars are both beautiful and sustainably produced.
Each print begins outdoors as a field sketch, a visual investigation of a plant, bird or landscape. At the kitchen table, she develops these fresh, raw sketches into drawings which she then transfers onto a slab of wood. Using v- and u-shaped gouges, she hand carves the image into wood. This image is then inked and rolled through the Takach relief press in her print studio. After the ink is dry, she had-colors each black and white print with multiple washes of transparent watercolor, creating images that are both bold and ethereal.
Her creative business started in 2000 after running around in the Northern Rockies with a field journal in hand, sketching and writing about the marvels of nature. These field sketches became the springboard for exquisitely carved, hand-colored woodblock prints which are the foundation for all of her products today.
Claire’s original woodblock prints have been displayed by museums, university collections and private collectors around the world. Her notecards and calendars are carried by bookstores, natural food stores, arboretums, nurseries, gift shops, birding stores and paper stores across the USA.