I carry you with me

In her latest series I carry you with me, Melbourne-based artist Clare Dubina continues her quiet, confident exploration of the female form—its gestures, silhouettes, and the emotional weight carried in its negative spaces. Known for her warm, earthy palette and a practice that spans painting and ceramics, Clare’s work evokes a sense of organic simplicity, where every curve and texture feels both intentional and intuitive. 

Born in 1977 to a British mother and Sri Lankan father, Clare graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of the Arts in 2001. However, it wasn’t until 2020 that she returned to her sketchbooks—originally filled during her university years, when her senior thesis focused on the female form—and began to shape the foundations of her current art practice. In the years between, Clare carved a varied creative path, working across fashion photography and retail design around the world. These formative experiences are still present in her work today, seen in the compositional awareness, the attention to surface, and the way her pieces seem to belong in both the home and the gallery space.

Clare’s paintings are loosely planned—sketched in advance with a strong sense of colour palette and form. “If I overthink as I’m drawing, I lose the organic markings and shapes my hands naturally want to create,” she explains. The result is a conversation between control and intuition, between stillness and movement.

Despite her quiet humility, Clare’s work has captured wide attention. Her previous series have sold out before reaching gallery walls, and her collaborations with Australian design names such as Viktoria & Woods and En Gold have only broadened her audience. Still, she remains grounded in the quiet rituals of making. Her studio—a small, light-filled space in a Brunswick warehouse—is both practical and personal. “It’s most likely going to stay in the practical state of white walls and bare concrete floors,” she says.

Clare’s inspirations range from the photographic simplicity of Edward Weston and Bill Brandt to the layered abstraction of Serge Poliakoff, and she’s equally drawn to the unexpected: a shadow across a wall, the way skin folds echo petals, or the tactile pleasure of running her fingers over a plant leaf. A trained printmaker, she brings a deep respect for surface and material to every medium she touches.

In every brushstroke, curve, and line, Clare Dubina offers a space for that kind of quiet discovery—a body of work that, much like the artist herself, invites you to look again, and feel something more.