Hilary Clarcq

“Looking Out,” oil on panel, 11 x 11 inches, 2026

“Call to Mind,” 11 x 11 inches, oil on panel, 2026.

Record of time and place. Plein air painting from 2026.04.29. Spring in Colorado: high plains, rolling thunder, showers, a coyote, and one painter.

Process from a recent painting: “Low Battery, No Milk”, oil on linen, 14x16 inches, 2026

“Low Battery, No Milk”, oil on linen, 14x16 inches, 2026

Oil and acrylic in Moleskine #sketchbook, Feb 2026. · Reference photos from @sktchy users [reba t n] and [Tamara Cruz IG @___marisma___ ]

"Call to Mind," charcoal and graphite on paper, 20cm x 20cm, 2025.

Original drawings and paintings from my work on Dune: Messiah and Children of Dune for The Folio Society are now available!

These preliminary drawings from “Dune: Messiah” and “Children of Dune,” along with many more original paintings and drawings, will be posted in my shop soon. Stay tuned!

Happy to share some wonderful news: my binding illustration for “Children of Dune” by Frank Herbert has earned a Gold Award in the Book category from the Society of Illustrators of LA! Thank you to the jurors, @foliosociety, AD Sheri Gee, and editor Robert Davies! • 18” x 24”, oil on panel, digital revisions. Promo photo by @foliosociety

One thing I love about science fiction is its ability to reflect our own reality and give us a different perspective on it. I can’t say I’ve experienced the full-on cacophony of genetic memory as Alia does. But metaphorical voices fighting for dominance of my psyche? I think we all know that feeling to some degree. A thought from Ghanima about Alia’s condition: “Alia denied what she was and became that which she most feared. The past-within cannot be relegated to the unconscious.”

Frontispiece for “Children of Dune” by Frank Herbert from @foliosociety

Exciting news that the @foliosociety edition of Children of Dune by Frank Herbert is now available!

The ghola, Hayt: A being reconstructed from the dead flesh of the original man whose appearance “positively melts the female psyche,” a Tleilaxu thing who is both man and mask, bearer of gleaming metal eyes, a Mentat, a Zensunni philosopher, a swordmaster — a complex character, indeed. Truth be told, I did swoon a few times while painting this, though thankfully my psyche remains intact. • Created for the illustrated edition of Dune: Messiah from The Folio Society

We wanted to keep continuity with FS’s edition of the first book, illustrated by Sam Weber (incidentally one of my favorite illustrators). So, Alia’s veil is a link back to Sam’s final illustration in Dune, which depicts Alia as small child. For me, the veil is a nod to the danger of prescience to lock the practitioner onto a fixed path, paradoxically limiting their view. Increasingly in Dune: Messiah, Alia represents religious dogma and the danger of having “blind faith” in a supreme figure or philosophy, so obscuring her eyesight seemed appropriate. And we also get this fitting line early in DM: “Such a rich store of myths enfolds Paul Muad’Dib…and his sister, Alia, it is difficult to see the real persons behind these veils.”

I was thinking about what I add to the world as a creator, as well as what I put out as a byproduct of consumption. In their own ways, each type of output can lead to our undoing as well as our re-making.

Close Instant, 11"x14", oil on panel. I repainted parts of this piece, had it framed, and it’s now up in my shop. I’ll also have it with me at Illuxcon - See you there!