For Claudia L. Brookes, art emerged as a second career after many years in the medical publishing business. Although she cannot remember a time when she could not draw and paint with some competence, and always had exposure to art materials and museums thanks to her amateur artist father, she waited until later in life to develop a career as a fine artist. She has pursued a path she calls "selective education," carefully targeting the classes, instructors, and workshops that would yield the most benefit to her development as an artist.

Claudia Brookes holds signature membership in the Baltimore Watercolor Society and is an active member of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association and The Artists' Association of St. John (VI). The artist's growing  interest in plein air painting has led to selection as a juried competitor in the prestigious Plein Air Easton  (Easton, MD) in 2009 and  2008, Wayne Arts Center Plein Air 2009 Festival  (Wayne, PA) judged by John Poon, Mountain Maryland Plein Air 2009 (Cumberland, MD), and  Paint Annapolis 2008 (Annapolis, MD).  Her painting, "The Perfect Light," received an Award of Merit at the Annapolis event, and  also the First Place Award in the Fall 2008 "Timeless Annapolis" show at Maryland Federation of Art. In June 2008 she entered the Gunpowder Falls Plein Air Competition (Northern Baltimore County, MD) and received the Third Runner Up award for her painting, "Foot of Corbett Village Road" from awards judge Nancy Tankersley. Her oil painting, "Mrs. Trimble's Garden," was awarded  an Honorable Mention  by selction/awards judge F. Lennox Campello in the Maryland Federation of Art's 8th Annual American Landscape show, which recieved more than 700 submissions nationally. In 2007 she was juried into both Paint Annapolis and the Havre de Grace Plein Air Competition, where she recieved a Second Place award for her oil painting, "Lock House Light." She teaches watercolor classes to all levels of students, emphasizing the wet-on-wet techniques for which she is best known.