St. Claire

Claire was sitting for a head study when a change in her pose gave Jeff the beginning of a much larger painting. She stood, turned, and became very still, as though she had heard her name from far away. He knew he wanted to paint her life-size before he knew the setting or understood what the painting might become.

The finished figure waited on the canvas for six months before Jeff placed her among dry prairie grasses in late-autumn light. That uncertain path became part of the painting's meaning for him, recalling the wrong turns and unexpected connections through which a life takes shape. St. Claire carries his sense that, looking back, we may recognize a guiding light in moments we did not understand while living them.