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 inclusion as a juried competitor in 2008 in the prestigious Plein Air Easton  (Easton, MD) and  Paint Annapolis  (Annapolis, MD). In 2007 she was juried into both Paint Annapolis and the Havre de Grace Plein Air Competition, where she placed second with 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.