Clare Woods is an intuitive abstract artist based in Matakana, Auckland.

Her collage work is created from painted paper swatches, cut and reassembled. She combines acrylic paint layering, mono-printing, and expressive mark-making using found and handmade tools. The papers themselves are an important part of the story. Clare reuses handwriting, children’s drawings, packaging and other discarded paper, giving them a new identity within each work.

Clare is fascinated by the quiet history that paper carries, and repurposing papers is central to my practice. She is interested in recognising value in materials that have already served one purpose and allowing them to continue in another form beneath layers of colour and texture. Every fragment has lived another life before becoming part of something new, while still retaining subtle traces of where it came from and sometimes even who created it.

People sometimes say her Sensibility series reminds them of a quilt, and she loves that comparison. Like a quilt, it brings together pieces that carry history, becoming something more than they were on their own. Every painted fragment is unique, like a fingerprint. Individually, they tell one story, but together they are something entirely different.

Clare’s work celebrates optimism, connection and the beauty found in the everyday. She hopes each piece invites people to slow down, look closer and discover something new every time they return to it.