Clare Brooksbank

Fore-edge painter

Photo by Nicolò Zanatta ©Michelangelo Foundation

©Clare Brooksbank

Continuing a hidden craft

Clare paints watercolours on the fore-edges of books
She paints by eye, without drawing a design first
This historic English tradition is now a rare craft

Artist Clare Brooksbank was in her early 20s when her work at the time – miniature oil paintings on a doll’s house scale – was spotted by a prominent antiquarian book dealer who thought she had the delicate touch necessary to become a fore-edge painter. As someone who loved books and had “an obsession with painting detail”, this historic English tradition suited Clare, and over the years she has created more than 2,000 of these ‘hidden’ watercolours painted on the fanned front edge of gilded antique books. Now one of only two commercial fore-edge painters in the UK, she combines her artistic work with teaching yoga.

Interview

©Clare Brooksbank

©Clare Brooksbank

Why did fore-edge painting appeal?: Initially it was just a way to make cash, because that’s not easy as an artist. Then I started to become aware that this was a rare art and I began to learn the history of it, and I find that fantastic. I love the idea that not many of us do it, because it feels like something special.
Where do you find inspiration for your paintings?: Being a woman I am quite interested in women, the way women think, and trying to express myself through the female form. I choose pictures that express something I like about women, or ones that are relevant to the content of the book.
What’s the most satisfying part of what you do?: Seeing people’s reactions to when I fan out the book and they see the painting… every single time their face is a picture. It’s the whole magic trick of the hidden painting, it’s something no one has ever seen before and I love that.
Do you feel a responsibility, given this is such a rare craft?: When you are doing something that is either very individual or, as I’m doing, something with such a heritage to it, you feel a responsibility to do it well – there is pride in doing the best you can. Every time I paint a book I’m nervous about it, I have to produce something special.

Clare Brooksbank is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1993