Claudia Hafner with “Sea Turtle No. 11” 

Claudia Hafner, Watercolorist

“Painting with watercolor is like being on a roller coaster,” said Claudia Hafner, Pompano Beach- based watercolor artist tells The Rickie Report.  “It’s painting quickly, letting go of control and not really knowing if you will arrive at the destination. “And while there is excitement in this type of painting, there is also an intimate, more quiet space where one becomes one with the subject. Watercolor challenges me to capture the essence of a subject through the brush and the fluidity of the paint, adding detail at the finish,” she said.

HOW SHE STARTED

“Shore Bird” by Claudia Hafner

Claudia may have been born and raised a “city girl” in New York but it did not take long after she relocated to Atlanta in her mid-20s that she found her way “back to the land”. Her early childhood trips to the Catskill Mountains for summer vacations had left her with indelible memories and provided her with her first tastes of nature.  Years later when she first took up weaving and then watercolor painting it was only natural that she would make all kinds of animals the focus of her artwork—exotic birds, wildlife, ocean life, farm and domestic animals as well as endangered Hawaiian birds.

When Claudia first went to Atlanta, weaving, was her first entry into the art world. She started as a hand weaver preferring to weave loose, draping fabric full of texture and color.  “My designs here were also inspired by nature in my use of color, texture and from,” she said. Claudia soon became an award winning weaver in the Atlanta area.  “Although my desire to create fabric never stopped, my pocketbook soon needed help.” said Claudia.

So, while Claudia began working full-time in the corporate world in the mid-1980s she also made a decision to return to school once again. Years before moving to Atlanta she had earned a BA in Music but said she had no intention of working in that field.  “This time I decided it was time to go to art school, so I enrolled in the Art Institute of Atlanta in the mid-1990s,” she said. “Landing a dream job in a technology company, I immersed my- self in computers, graphic design, multimedia and web until layoffs hit in the dot.com era in 2011.”

Freed from a 9-5 job but working as a full-time contract web designer, she joined a watercolor class as well a watercolor critique group that met almost every week for many years as a pastime.  It was also during this period that she developed her unique, loose style through exposure to several noted watercolorists including John Yardley well known for his cityscapes and Jean Haines for her loose painting style that begins without a preliminary drawing.  “But it was really the late Charles Reid whose teaching technique for painting loosely presented me with the “ah-ha” moment that had such an impact in my future paintings,” said Claudia.

MOVING TO FLORIDA /  SELLING HER WORK

In 2013 Claudia and her husband, Doug, moved to Pompano Beach.  And it was here in South Florida that Claudia’s entrepreneurial spirit really kicked in. “When I was a kid in elementary school, I taught myself how to make pencil portraits of the Beatles and sell them,” she said.”  Discovering South Florida’s outdoor world of festivals, fairs and exhibits—all places where she could sell her watercolors is also where she found a following among people who love animals, nature and creatures.

“People love animals and you can see the joy on their faces when they see the menagerie of different animals in my booth at shows,” said Claudia. “It establishes an immediate connection between us.”  Claudia said that it did not take long for her to begin to interact with these people at shows, showing her art in festivals as far north as Jupiter and as far south as Hollywood.

But every artist needs that “identifier” and Claudia found hers a block away from her new home on the beach. “My husband, Doug and I moved one block away from the beach and sea turtles became an immediate passion.”  Turtles did not just consume her painting but aroused an environmental “consciousness”. “I have been looking after them and participating in the protection and rescue of hatchlings during the May-October nesting season each year,” she said. “It is very rewarding.”

GOING BIGGER

“It’s been very popular to reproduce my sea turtle paintings in a large format, more than 36” in length and width, printed on high quality photographic paper and mounted between an aluminum Dibond backing and 1⁄4” acrylic glass. The colors and watercolor brushwork make these large reproductions truly unique,” she said.  “People often stop in their tracks when they see the oversized turtles reproduced in this clean contemporary process.”

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Through the years Claudia has been the recipient of numerous awards for her beautiful watercolor paintings including “Emerging Artist” in 2015 with Gold Coast Watercolor Society and  admission to the prestigious ArtiGras Festival in Jupiter, FL in 2016. As part of the National League of American Pen Women 2019 Skolnick Exhibit judge Beth Ravitz commented about her work.  “Her artwork brings all the important components together mastering composition and the vivid use of color balanced with the dynamic use of the white paper,” said Ravitz, a multidimensional public artist who holds a BA and MFA from the University of Miami.  While awards are nice to receive, said Claudia, they were never her goal.  “I prefer instead to develop a following through sales venues whether from original paintings or product, connecting with a wide audience of all ages.” she said.

OTHER ANIMALS, BIRDS

“The attraction for painting animals started with painting colorful birds,” said Claudia. “A collection of endangered Hawaiian birds became the first line of products printed from my originals that sell at the Hawaii Wildlife Center on the Big Island. Now my paintings consist of popular as well as exotic birds, wildlife, farm and domestic animals.”

INVOLVEMENT/ CLAUDIA’S AUDIENCE

Claudia is involved in a number of local arts organizations including the Gold Coast Watercolor Society and Delray Art League; She is also a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Fort Lauderdale Branch and the South Florida Audubon Society.

Many customers up and down the East Coast have fallen in love with Claudia’s sea turtles. She believes in making sure her work is easily accessible to the broad marketplace by not only having original works available but also by having giclee’s/prints and creating a variety of merchandise. “This also gives me the opportunity to create products beyond the original paintings such as tile coasters, keepsake boxes and tote bags and more,” she said.

While her main focus of exhibiting and sales has been through outdoor art shows in South Florida, her work is also available at her website:

Facebook: http://Facebook.com/ClaudiaHafnerWatercolor

Instagram: http://Instagram.com/claudiahafnerwatercolor

Prints and merchandise: https://claudia-hafner.pixels.com/ Merchandise : http://cafepress.com/hafner
Limited edition prints: https://Etsy.com/shop/ClaudiaHafnerArt