She was shortlisted for the Rise Art Prize in the illustration category reaching the 1% shortlist from 16,000 entries in the UK. What’s a day like for a woman international artist?

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Titled “A Day In The Life Of A Woman,” this series celebrates the women in our lives. From the everyday to inspirational, the series aims to highlight women from various fields and share a bit of the diversity we experience every day.

In 2016, Clare Haxby relocated her working studio from Singapore to England. Clare is currently working on her new Collection of London Landmarks’ starting with the Liberty building.

6:30 -7 AM: Wake up and have a cup of Lady Grey tea in bed brought to me by my lovely husband. Alfie my youngest (7) climbs into bed too for morning snuggles and hot chocolate.

I shower then make breakfast and try to remember which sports/music stuff Alfie needs. If my husband isn’t travelling he may do it – we share the morning routine. I get a quick goodbye from my 17 year old son off to college and drive my daughter who is 15 to school bus stop 1 mile away as it’s still dark in the mornings at that time.

8 AM: If it’s a school day I drive Alfie to the school bus pick up point and come back home. I check my phone for a bit to see what is happening on my social media posts. I empty and load the dishwasher and put washing machine on, fold and dry laundry, and sort out the ironing pile for our cleaning lady. The domestics are not my favourite tasks!

9 AM: Trying to be more present with my eating and self-care rather than eating whilst working on the computer, etc (which I used to do) so today I am making a fruit smoothie with banana passion fruit, blood orange and raspberries with dried gogi berries I got from the health shop. I also take a multivitamin and probiotic.

I turned 50 this year and have started taking my health more seriously.

10 AM: Fetch in coal and wood for fire and make the fire up for later, we are in the winter season in England so this is a daily and essential task. Make poached eggs and avocado normally – if I eat a proper breakfast I don’t have to break off and have lunch.

11 AM: Today I was travelling into London for my monthly Barnes Athena meeting. I live in Surrey but have joined the West London group. They love the fact that I was in the Singapore Athena group first. It takes me an hour to drive into Barnes then I have to find a car parking space.

If I am not out and about I am in the studio working on new paintings or developing ideas from my sketchbooks and catching up on my backlog of emails.

12 PM: At The Athena Network meeting we had talks on SEO optimisation and the new data protection laws around marketing and holding customer data. I took in one of my Buddha prints and one of my ginger lily prints for my 1-minute talk we all do at the meeting. I am still on my journey of finding my niche back in London, I feel frustrated that things don’t happen quicker but the networking group at Athena is always such a motivational day even if I still do feel nervous doing the ‘monthly minute’ talk.

1 PM: Lunch was at The Treehouse Pub in Barnes today, our venue for the Athena meet up.  Normally I just snack on nuts whilst working in the studio on my new paintings Landmarks of London.

2 PM: I drove back from Barnes after a bit of after-meeting chats with the girls. Filled up with petrol on the way back as I realised I had only 9 miles of fuel left!

3 PM: Back at home I quickly organised a courier to pick up some retro chairs I had bought on ebay from Cornwall for our our Victorian home. I love finding funky interiors finds. I also ordered some fabric from harlequin.com for the upholstery.

I have already had our renovated bedroom featured in House Beautiful magazine (UK) so hoping to get my next completed room placed in a magazine. I really want to design my own line of fabrics one day. It is on my future goals wish list.

4 PM: I just signed up for fresh milk doorstep delivery from milkandmore as they deliver in the old fashioned glass bottles like when I was a kid.

I am trying to minimise the plastic we bring into the house. It is a hot topic in the UK at the moment especially after David Attenborough’s Blue Planet about the plastic waste in the ocean killing turtles and other sea life.

5 PM: Collected two of the kids from the school bus stop and chat about their day and help with any emotional or homework issues.

Feed our two cats, Errol is an incredible 22 years old and is a cat we took with us to Singapore and brought back. He is our expat cat! We also brought back Abbey a Singapore rescue cat with one eye.

6 PM: Prepare the evening meal whilst listening to YouTube video by Richard Grannon set up on workstation. He is a British motivational life coach.

I am trying to add in some new recipes to our normal family favourites as I love trying new things, a new recipe from one of the Sunday papers is this week’s try-out.

7 PM: Most evenings we eat together as a family and catch up with everyone’s day. I generally have a gin and tonic or a glass of wine with my husband! It’s the time when the teenagers are most likely to share what is going on for them. We have three children – two teenagers and one 7-year-old so it’s always busy but I am really appreciating the teenagers still being at home.

8 PM:  My youngest goes to bed and the rest of us watch some TV, at the moment we love The Dragons Den where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to investors. I love anything about travel or home building otherwise.

9 PM: Catch up time with hubby and the teenagers post-homework, at the moment we are all excited for our summer home exchange with a family in the Turks and Caicos.

We started home swapping when we lived in Singapore through homeexchange.com and this is the first swap we are doing since we came back. I am so excited as I have never been to the Caribbean and I absolutely love to travel to new places. With homeswapping there is no cash transaction you just buy your flights, swaps homes and even cars. It makes travelling more available to us as a family and I love the home-swapping community.

10 PM: Back online to check up on my plans for my solo visit to Bali, I have booked a bamboo house for an art and meditation retreat next month. I’m going alone but meeting up with my friend from Sydney there for the second week.

I have booked a ‘Meditate with a Shamen’ experience. After seriously burning out in the past and a diagnosis of chronic fatigue I have learned that it isn’t selfish to look after yourself. You are a better mother, wife friend and everything else if you are replenished so this is for me.

11 PM: Listen to Theta meditation tape on earphones by Lisa Romano in bed. I am trying to alter my brainwaves, get better quality sleep, lessen my anxiety and have a more positive outlook.

I have learned that I am an empath and HSP (highly sensitive person). I feel things deeply but this can have an overwhelming effect as empaths take on others energy and problems unwittingly as we are inclined to always want to help. We all have issues and disappointments to deal with and meditation really helps me.

As mothers and entrepreneurs we all juggle a lot but life certainly isn’t boring!

More About Clare Haxby As An Artist

British artist, Clare, lived in Singapore between 2007 and 2015, and travelled extensively throughout Southeast Asia during this time, gaining invaluable inspiration for new work. Clare launched her highly celebrated ‘Singapore Landmarks Collection’ at The Fullerton Hotel in a solo show in 2013. This large collection of paintings explores the heritage and modern architecture of Singapore, captured in her colourful, contemporary style.

Alongside Clare’s original paintings, the demand for the artist’s unique images on a smaller scale and affordable price point led to the creation of Clare’s ‘Limited Edition Print Collection’. These prints have been a huge success as an affordable art gift for expats and the local community alike. 

The French Embassy in Singapore collects Clare’s work, as does the consulate in Dubai and her prints and paintings now hang in homes all over the world from Costa Rica, to New Zealand, to London. Clare has been described as an ‘art ambassador of Singapore’ by the consul of the Singapore Consulate in New York.

Clare’s studio is currently based in Surrey England and she continues to work on private commissions for paintings and exhibits worldwide, most recently in Venice, Columbia, New York, Miami and London.