About

Claire Bolay is a painter based in Lavaux, a wine-growing region on the shores of Lake Geneva inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Her work explores the landscapes of the Canton of Vaud through oil and watercolour: terraced vineyards, reflections on Lake Geneva, snow scenes, storm skies, and rural architecture.

A lifelong creator, Claire has explored many mediums and techniques — gouache, batik, India ink drawing, textile art — before discovering her passion for oil painting, which she learned on her own. Oil allows her to play with thickness and transparency to best express her perception of colour — and even to invent, when the aim is to convey an impression rather than a photographic reproduction of a landscape.

What she loves above all are colours — manifold, subtle, nuanced, or vivid. Oil paint, which she enriches with natural pigments, and its texture express her impressions with intensity, sometimes with force: colour and light, the play of contrasts, the vigour of the elements.

The essence of her work lies in interpreting reflections and shadows, restoring the glow of a sunset, capturing an atmosphere, paying homage to light. A lively stroke, the boldness of oppositions, the force of the palette knife on canvas characterise her painting. To play with the thickness of the medium in order to render the transparency of water — that is the challenge.

Nature is her inspiration: the vineyards of Lavaux, the hills of the Vaud Pre-Alps, the shores of Lake Geneva and the banks of the Rhône. Line and colour do not depict reality itself, but rather the effect that a ray of light or a cast shadow produces in the artist.

Claire is always exploring new techniques, including encaustic painting and pure pigments, as well as new forms of expression through studies of movement. She also creates works inspired by moucharabiehs, echoing the condition of women, often prisoners of stereotypes.

Claire Bolay studied for two years with Michel Jaquier — academic drawing, perspective, mixed media, watercolour, and studio visits. She exhibits regularly in the Canton of Vaud and throughout French-speaking Switzerland, and her works are held in private collections in Switzerland and abroad.

She looks forward to sharing her diverse compositions with you.