Vibrant Earth – Claire Lau: Inclusions Gallery
Vibrant Earth – Claire Lau
Thursday, May 14, 2026 – Sunday, June 14, 2026
Opening Reception: May 16, 5–7 PM
Artist Talk: May 31, 4 PM
For this exhibition, Claire Lau intentionally set out to chase the ephemeral beauty of California’s spring. From San Ramon to Pescadero, from Point Reyes to the Carrizo Plain National Monument, her goal is to relish the present and capture spring in a permanent form so that we can return to the joy of the experience.
Claire Lau’s paintings celebrate nature, light, and color, focusing on landscapes illuminated by the bright blue sky. She is drawn to undulating hills and mountains, and to the way the Bay or the ocean interacts with the coastline. Her work often highlights vibrant plant life discovered within urban settings. During walks and hikes, she identifies scenes that demand a return visit with her canvas, easel, and supplies.
Artist Bio
Claire was born in France, grew up in Hong Kong, and studied studio arts and music at Hampshire College, MA. Since then, she has lived in Hong Kong and Boston before settling in San Francisco in 2015.
Claire has been painting in oils for 24 years and painting consistently en plein air for 15 years. She has exhibited her work in Hong Kong, Massachusetts, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
She is dedicated to plein air painting for two primary reasons.
First, painting outdoors helps her reconnect with the environment. In a tech-focused era in which people often become detached from nature and humanity, she believes most people spend too much time in front of screens without paying attention to their surroundings. Setting up an easel outdoors allows her to spend days at a location, experiencing fluctuating temperatures, wind, and the landscape’s sensory details. Through this process of observing changes in light, air, and flora, she develops a profound personal connection with the site.
Secondly, Lau paints outdoors because she believes the human experience of a landscape cannot be replicated digitally. Photographs, videos, and 3D renderings often fail to capture the full experience or the true depth of colors seen by the naked eye. Her paintings act as a translation of her experience, moving from her eyes to her brain and, finally, to her hands, retelling a story. Responding to the shifting light and forms of nature, she feels a sense of urgency to document these moments.
When standing before her subject, Lau searches for hidden hues and mixes a palette of saturated colors to convey the beauty of the world around her.
Claire considers herself a global citizen and, through her art and activism, continuously strives to increase the care people have for nature, society, and each other.
