Based in Ashland, Oregon, by way of London, artist Claire Burbridge has long been fascinated with the natural environment. Having grown up between Scotland’s rugged west coast and the rolling hills of Somerset, England, Burbridge’s encounters with nature inspired her fine art sculptures and eventually her collection of wallpapers, which she launched in 2017.
“The inspiration for my first wallcoverings came from a desire to create a more immersive environment for my fine art works,” Burbridge reflects. “After years of doing shows in pristine white-walled galleries, I wanted to bring more of nature inside.” Now, her collection of wallpapers has expanded to over a dozen patterns, all drawn by hand and evoking some of Burbridge’s favorite natural environs, including the birch forests of the Pacific Northwest, medicinal plants she has found while foraging in the wild, and rock lichens found on granite right in Oregon, which is the inspiration for her latest wallcovering.
Called Lichen Constellation, the new design arose out of a public art commission for a set of mixed-media paintings in a new biophilic building for Salem Public Works. “For me, lichens are as beautiful, varied and inspiring as flowers, and they have crucial roles in a healthy ecosystem,” Burbridge says. “Looking deeply into the world of lichen is as mesmerizing as looking into the endless cosmos.”
