VICTORIA CLARE

I live in Cornwall, in the Tamar Valley near the river that runs between Devon and Cornwall, where I have run a small website development business since 2000... I took a BA in Modern History from Oxford. Modern history at Oxford starts in 420AD, and despite the name, most of my focus was medieval and earlier - my special subject was the Carolingian Renaissance (no, not the famous Italian Renaissance, a much earlier one.) This left me with a great interest in early medieval art, including weaving, metalwork and carving as well as painting. I was also a member of the Oxford Tolkien society and Arthurian society: two experiences that ended up having more impact on my way of thinking than I entirely realised at the time. I developed a great love of historical story, and the way that story complicates into legend and into myth, and this is reflected in the subjects that I paint and how I approach them... After Oxford I volunteered at the Museum of Oxford, while teaching history part-time...