Claudia Balthrop recently relocated to Clarksville, TN from Ocean Springs MS with her husband Carlton and other family members after Hurricane Katrina. She is originally from East Tennessee where she was very active in the Knoxville / Oak Ridge art scene. Balthrop say's "I am very happy to be in Clarksville and I have met many nice and talented people since I came here. I hope to become an active and contributing member of the arts in this area".
Balthrop works in both transparent watercolor and mixed media painting. Her style ranges from highly representational images to total abstraction depending on the subject matter or idea she is trying to convey. She is a former public school art teacher and has enhanced her training with thirteen years of understudy work with artist, Robert Birdwell as well as graduate classes at the University of Tennessee, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Savanna College of Art and Design and many other venues. She is a member of several professional organizations including Southern Watercolor Society, Louisiana Watercolor Society, Mississippi Watercolor Society, Tennessee Art League, and is a Signature Member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society. Her painting entitled "One Song Many Voices" recently won one of the top awards (The Totally Transparent Watercolor Award )in the 2006 Tennessee Watercolor Society Exhibit at Clarksville's Customs House Museum.
        Balthrop's work can be found in many corporate and private collections in all regions of the United States and parts of Europe.

ARTIST STATEMENT

"Most of my paintings are derived from a desire to explore my subconscious in an effort to discover the original stimulus that attracted me to a scene or an idea. I then set about the task of interpreting the emotion, mood, color or whatever first impressed me, by using the tools of art. This struggle to transpose an abstract emotion or idea into a two dimensional piece of art and the choices made during the effort are what makes a piece of artwork meaningful for me."