Cláudia Salgueiro’s Collages Read Like Poems of Place

Cláudia Salgueiro

Mixed Media Artist

Cláudia Salgueiro was born in a little town in the middle of Portugal, and studied fine art and editorial design at University of Porto.

She now lives and works from Porto and her creative work expands through design, drawing and illustration.

She loves to take long walks and finds her biggest inspirations in nature. Through her work she explores mediums like graphite, found-paper collage and alternative printing techniques

In her subdued color palette and with snippets of words overlaying drawn details, her pieces are like visual poems of place. There is emphasis within the blank space.

Learn more in her own words.

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Meet Cláudia:

You say your biggest inspiration is nature. What landscape(s), details, or experiences of nature are you inspired by? 

I grew up in a relatively small town in central Portugal. Since I was very young I went camping with my parents and we go hiking on the weekends. In a way, over time, this taste and concern for the natural world grew.

Walking as an aesthetic practice is a subject that interests me a lot and that fosters part of this relationship between art, walking and nature. Portugal is a small country, where there are no big routes but which allows you to quickly be close to nature and take a walk. The idea of starting ​​walking with a backpack on your back and just go is something that inspires me a lot.

Then in terms of imagery, the ideas come from various sources. Not only about my physical surroundings but also a lot of information that I read and research about great trails around the world, natural parks, the great mountains, adventures and expeditions, etc.

How does the above inform your work?

I think that walking comes more as a space for pause, thought and motivation. The images and metaphors born from different origins. I often enter a more micro space and there is a focus on plants, rocks, sticks, small details that sometimes pass us by, but which in themselves carry an exceptional beauty. Other times I’m more interested in space, the mountains, the landscape… I like to mix elements, create stories, and play with scales.

What do you like about graphite and collage as artistic mediums? 

Graphite is a material connected to nature by itself and pencil is typically made of wood. I like to use graphite pencils due to the level of detail and tonal scale that it enhances by itself. It is slow work that requires concentration, almost like an act of meditation.

Collage comes above all from an interest linked to the exploration of memory and the creation of narratives that are born between the image and the word. My use of collage is always linked to found-paper. They are cutouts often found in abandoned places, papers with their own story, often written by someone unknown on a distant date, words from books that tell a different story and gain a new context.

However, in addition to this very analogical work of drawing and collage, I also like to explore its relationship with the digital and I like to mix techniques. Often, especially in commercial projects, I use digital color over graphite design.

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Learn more about Cláudia at ClaudiaSalgueiro.com and see more of her work on Instagram @cs_salgueiro.