Illustrator, turned full-time Mum, now returning to her art. Claudine O’Sullivan has been on a journey of self discovery over the past few years. She paused her career as an award-winning commercial artist and illustrator to focus her time on her family. And now she has found herself at a point, ready to return to the studio. Although things have shifted from her usual routine. Her studio practice no longer begins at a desk. It starts out on the road, mid-run, somewhere between rhythm and breath. As Claudine refers to this new period; Movement As Method.
“Following the birth of my second child, I began running. What started as a way to process the trauma of my son’s heart surgery became a route back to my own practice, after years working primarily to commercial briefs.
Running reopened a space for making without instruction. Returning to paint felt playful and invigorating, prompting a shift toward abstract mark-making and process-led work“.
Claudine’s work sits somewhere between painting and drawing, but what really shapes it is movement. Long-distance running isn’t just a hobby – it’s her way of researching, thinking, and ultimately making. Each run becomes a kind of quiet investigation, where routes, repetition, and physical effort slowly filter into her work.
Rather than sketching what she sees, Claudine translates what she experiences. The terrain, the pace, the repetition of footsteps – they all get distilled down into pared-back, abstract compositions.
“These two paintings are among the first from that period. Both were shaped by early grey morning runs along the canal – muted light, steady rhythm, repetition. While my palette has since moved toward brighter colour, these works mark an important turning point in my return to painting”.
It’s a practice built on restraint. Lines, shapes and structures emerge through a process of reduction – stripping things back rather than adding more. There’s a quiet discipline to it, echoing the steady persistence of running itself. What might look minimal at first glance actually carries a lot of weight: miles of movement compressed into a single surface.
You can find Claudine’s new paintings in the gallery and online now.
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