About

Clare Hewitt BA (Hons) Design and Illustration

Clare Hewitt was born in Glasgow, but moved to India at the age of 2. She came back to London briefly, then went overseas again to Chile, Brazil, and Argentina where she finished school.

Life with her parents in the diplomatic service has given her a wide cultural, visual, and political perspective. She has learned the importance of keeping her eyes and mind open and enjoying the wonderful variety and difference between people.

On returning to Scotland she studied Design and Illustration at Glasgow School of Art. She is now based in Edinburgh and for the last 30 years she has had a career as an illustrator mostly in the design and advertising field, working for a wide array of clients. She has also illustrated 2 books - Clarissa Dickson Wright's 'The Little Book of Haggis' and 'A Little Scottish Song Book'. In the last 15 years she has also been creating illustrated maps for the National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, Forestry Commission, West Highland Way and Vogrie Country Park, amongst others.

Turning to portraiture was a natural progression from creating the many characters and caricatures that she enjoyed bringing to life in her illustrating career. Bringing real people to life on canvas, to be enjoyed by many generations of a family, was a new and exciting challenge.

She is happy to paint adults and children of all ages. She can also paint group and family portraits, pets or other animals - as long as you can get them to pose - however briefly!  Having explored through history and realised how often the identity of the sitter has been lost, Clare likes to include a little information about them on the reverse of the painting. 

Her commissioned portraiture is held in private collections in the UK and abroad.

More of her illustration and map illustration work can be found at -   https://www.clarehewittmaps.com