July Artist Spotlight
Meet Claudia Doherty
Claudia Doherty is a Newton, Massachusetts–based painter working primarily in acrylics. Her atmospheric paintings explore the female figure, gesture, clothing, and mood, often placing solitary figures within quiet, abstracted coastal settings inspired by Cape Cod.
Finding My Way to Painting
My path to becoming an artist was not a direct one. I graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a B.A. in Economics and began my career in financial services. My work took me to Tokyo, and I later lived in London and Hong Kong.
After returning to the United States, I stepped away from financial services when my three children were born. In 2009, once they were all in school full time, I registered for an art class. I began with drawing, moved into watercolor, and then tried oil painting. I fell in love with it immediately and have been painting ever since. What began as something I finally had the time and space to explore quickly became much more.
What I Paint
My earliest interest was in portraiture, but over time I became increasingly drawn to the figure. Women appear again and again in my paintings, often turned away or shown with only the suggestion of a face.
I am less interested in creating a recognizable portrait than in capturing an impression of someone: the tilt of a head, the curve of a shoulder, the weight of a dress, or the feeling of a person absorbed in a private moment. By leaving the face unresolved, the figure remains partly unknowable, allowing viewers to imagine what she might be experiencing.
Cape Cod is a constant source of inspiration, particularly Nauset Beach, the surrounding marshes, and town landings. I enjoy combining a figure with a quiet, abstracted coastal setting that carries the atmosphere of the Cape—tranquil, spare, and melancholy.
I also paint still lifes, especially clothing hanging on its own. I love the folds, weight, and movement of fabric and the way an empty dress or coat can suggest a person even when no figure is present. Whether I am painting a figure, landscape, or garment, I am drawn to subjects that seem to hold a story without fully revealing it.
Process and Highlights
I work from a combination of photographs, observation, and memory. A photograph may provide the beginning of a composition, but the painting often moves far from its original source as I layer and scrape.
I originally painted in oils but eventually switched to acrylics because they were better suited to my home studio. I often begin with a yellow-ochre underpainting and build the image through layers of ultramarine blue, raw umber, and other muted colors. I am drawn to subdued, moody palettes that suggest quietness, distance, or melancholy. At the same time, I repeatedly return to the figure in a red dress. Alizarin crimson and viridian green have become a recurring color relationship for me.
Recent highlights include having work juried into exhibitions at the Danforth Art Museum, the Cape Cod Museum of Art, and galleries in Boston and on Cape Cod. I am represented by Galatea Fine Art in Boston’s SoWa district, and my work is also available through Artsy.
Connect with Me
Website:
https://www.claudiadoherty.com
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/claudiadohertyfineart