May Claerhout was born in Pittem in 1939. She was multi-talented and multifaceted, working as a painter, sculptor, illustrator and ceramist. She lived with her family for a long time in Gravenwezel before moving to Malle, where she set up her own studio and her husband built a bronze foundry.
Her style is appreciated for its naïve purity borrowed from folk art, a testament to her natural ability considering that she had no formal training and was entirely self-taught. The key component of her solitary education is vision: ‘Visual work starts with seeing. You must have the gift and the will to see things and people as they are; the portrayal will follow later…’ said the artist when explaining her attraction to art and its practice.
She devoted the final years of her career to producing a substantial number of porcelain pieces, adding to her unique corpus, fuelled by a passionate technique and simple ambition.
Constantly curious and creative, Claerhout continued to produce art until the day she died. Unfortunately, a brain tumour brought an untimely end to her life and career, but she stayed true to her passion, sculpting, drawing and conceiving exhibition layouts all through her illness.
Claerhout is renowned in her native Belgium for outdoor sculpture installations, mainly at public transport stops and in green areas.