Artist and muralist Claire Prouvost: ‘I am particularly drawn to projects that reveal a strong human or community history’
Working across various mediums and playing with scale, colour and texture, Claire Prouvost is an artist whose work explores emotion, memory and human connection. Having just unleashed a host of colour throughout the Guinness Storehouse for Paddy’s Day, the artist shares her cultural life with us.
Claire Prouvost is an artist drawn to everyday moments and the complexity of relationships, exploring them through intuitive lines, expressive colour and deconstructed figures that suggest more than they define. Her work sits between figuration and abstraction, at the meeting point of form, feeling and story.
Claire challenges her style across scales and mediums, from editorial illustration and packaging to large-scale murals and installations, allowing images to adapt and interact with different spaces. Whether on canvas, a wall, a screen or in print, the aim is to create work that feels human and alive, bold in colour, playful in form, and rooted in shared experience.
Was a career as an artist and muralist something you always aspired to?
Yes, I have always wanted to work in a creative field, although I didn’t know exactly what that would look like. The experiences I’ve had, the people I’ve met along the way, and my life in Ireland over the past ten years have all helped shape that journey. Today, I feel that being an image-maker and painter, working across different mediums and scales, is what defines me best. But who knows what the future holds!
What is your process when creating a new work? How do certain themes and experiences feed into or present themselves in your art?
I am very influenced by what surrounds me. I love extracting shapes, colours and textures from my environment and weaving them into my artworks. Narrative and storytelling are also central to my process, so I often immerse myself in a place and try to understand its history before I start creating.
During my visit to the Guinness Storehouse, I was immediately drawn to the building itself. Its architecture holds the past and present within the same space, with industrial structures standing alongside the movement and energy of today.
While exploring the Guinness archives with the amazing and passionate Eibhlin Colgan, Archive and Heritage Manager, I became fascinated by old maps of the St James’s Gate Brewery. They reveal a hidden choreography of railways, pipes, trucks and trains moving ingredients and Guinness through every stage of production. These systems made the site feel alive, a place shaped by motion, exchange and collaboration.
I was also struck by the layers of knowledge embedded there, from barrel making to engineering, and by the beauty of its structure, including one of the early metal beam frameworks designed by William Arrol, inspired by the Chicago School. A building once driven by industry now welcomes people from all over the world to discover the story of the famous brand.
What stayed with me most is how these stories continue to blend with the present, even if they are not immediately visible. I see my work as a bridge with an audience, a way to visualise stories and make them exciting, interactive and accessible.
What are some of your favourite subjects, or specific pieces that you’ve created?
To be honest, I love the variety of it all. I am always amazed that I get to work with so many different people, from community groups to sports centres, hospitals, and businesses big and small, both in Ireland and abroad.
Each place has a story to tell, and I get to meet people who are passionate about what they do while learning new things along the way. Whether I am painting a mural about local wildlife and birds, or about sports or music, I enjoy it all.
That said, I am particularly drawn to projects that reveal a strong human or community history. So, when the opportunity came to work with the Guinness Storehouse for St Patrick’s Day, I was so excited as the Home of Guinness is at the heart of community and culture. I am also very passionate about feminist issues and about bringing women’s stories and histories into public space.
Tell us about your work with the Guinness Storehouse for Paddy’s Day?
Visitors saw different installations and artworks spread across all seven floors in the Guinness Storehouse. I worked with a very talented team at Archetype, who helped bring my messy sketches to life.
I was especially excited to bring my usual 2D mural work into a 3D installation, including sculptural elements that allowed visitors to step into my world.
The main piece is a large-scale installation surrounding the ground floor replica of the St James’s Gate, which is one of the first things visitors see when they enter the Guinness Storehouse. I created many drawn elements that reflect the layered history of the brewery, blending characters and features from the past and present and arranging them around the gates to form an immersive, colourful artwork.
Some pieces were lit, some were hand-painted, and many included textured painted surfaces created in my studio. I also loved how we have worked with light and the windows across the different floors, placing artworks that resemble stained glass. These casted colourful reflections across the space and reference architectural features of the brewery and the workers who shaped its history.
Who is someone you look up to in the realm of Irish art?
It’s really hard to only reference one artist, but lately, I’ve been admiring the textured, colourful work of Sarah Dwyer and how her diverse practice moves between painting, drawing and ceramics.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
One of the biggest highlights has been travelling for different projects. Getting to paint in France, the UK, Germany, Spain and Indonesia, and communicating beyond language through art, is an incredible experience. I hope I will get to do even more of that in the future.
What is one thing you wish everyone knew about working as an artist?
You have to juggle a lot of different things to make it work. I paint murals, do illustration work, maintain a studio practice, lecture at a university and also have a passive income from print sales, among other things. Many people have a romantic vision of an artist working quietly alone in a studio, but in reality, it requires a lot of entrepreneurship and organisation.
What would you say to a budding artist unsure of their next steps?
Build meaningful connections, find something you can specialise in, and be reliable and professional in everything you do. Those things really make a difference, and over time they will pay off.
Claire Prouvost’s life in culture
The last thing I saw and loved… Parasite by Bong Joon Ho, unsettling but a great movie!
The book I keep coming back to… Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin. It’s a brilliant book exploring the ways in which feminist artists challenge the classical representation of the female body in art.
I find inspiration in… Everyday life, theatre, cinema, books and poetry.
My favourite film is… Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson.
My career highlight is… Travelling to paint a mural with a community from a remote village on the island of Sumba, Indonesia
The song I listen to, to get in the zone is… I’ve got countless work playlists but at the moment I enjoy nostalgic songs like ‘Stall Stickers’ by Minola.
The last piece of art I recommend is… Cecilia Vicuna’s show at IMMA, ‘Reverse Migration, a poetic journey.’
I never leave the house without… My sketchbook!
The piece of work I still think about is… Seeing Joanne Mitchell’s drawings and painting at the Tate Modern.
The best advice I’ve ever gotten… Stay curious.
The art that means the most to me is… A show where I can sense the personality of the artist. Where they are able to showcase an artistic vision across different media, such as drawing, painting, installation, performance…
The most challenging thing about being an artist is… Balance!
The magic of art to me is… Connection to a shared human condition.
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