Claudia Gioseffi Zaik has been painting all her life. Memories from childhood play a role in inspiring her images along with her immediate surroundings and travels. Oil paint is the best medium for expressing her ideas due to its richness and translucence— she often lets the imprimatura, or semi-transparent first layer of paint, show through.

The relationship of figures with buildings and sidewalks dominated her work while she resided in cities—some say her depictions of houses, tree-lined streets and umbrellas give an impression of shelter. Now that she lives in the Low Country and finds herself journeying to wilder settings, she is intrigued by a renewed relationship with nature, especially its spiritual aspects. She says each painting is a new challenge to harmonize color, movement and feeling.