Well Feathered Nest

Reportage 13595289 | © living4media / Narratives / Sanderson, Robert | 28 images

Sometimes, when things don’t go the way you expect, and you don’t have what you’d ideally like to have to hand, you have to improvise. But improvising doesn’t have to mean compromising: sometimes, what comes out of just giving a left-field idea a go can turn out just as well, or if you’re lucky, perhaps even better. ‘Over the years, I’ve had several situations that have forced me to think laterally, ’ says artist Clare Brownlow, who with husband Charlie, has two sons, Harry, 6, and Alfie, 4.When she didn’t have her paints and brushes to hand on a weekend visit to her parents in Norfolk, Clare picked up feathers and ink and developed an energetic and often unpredictable body of work; when she hasn’t had the money to buy new furniture, she’s repainted old hand-me-downs or bought car-boot finds to create the elegantly eclectic look she’s after on a budget; and when she couldn’t find the right house for sale, she proposed the idea of renting.