CLARE CAULFIELD - Artist Statement

Clare Caulfield is a UK artist and printmaker whose work is inspired by her travels to some of the world’s greatest cities, some of which she returns to again and again drawing on new ideas each time. Her collection includes Paris, Venice, New York, Rome, Prague, Istanbul, Sydney and Reykjavik. The magic of each location being recreated in Clare’s very distinctive and illustrative style of working. She produces mixed-media paintings, original handmade prints, limited edition prints and handmade cards. She loves travelling to new places and uses the energy and buzz of these great cities to create lively paintings that capture and document her experiences.

Drawing has always been a very important part of Clare’s work. She is fascinated by architecture be it the Midtown skyscrapers of Manhattan, The Grand Canal in Venice or simply capturing Parisian life outside a bustling pavement café. Clare works in a variety of media: watercolour, acrylic, collage, pencil, dip pen & ink. She also takes lots of photographs and picks up all sorts of odds and ends on her travels from menu’s to postcards and local newspapers, anything that will help to conjure a memory or spark her imagination. Using her preparatory sketches and drawings she tries to work as spontaneously as possible in order to maintain lively and energetic line work.

Clare’s love of drawing and use of line lend themselves perfectly to her work as a printmaker. Screen-printing allows Clare to transfer the lively original drawings often taken directly from her sketchbook produced whilst on her travels, onto both paper and canvas enabling her prints to maintain this great sense of spontaneity. Within many of her screen prints Clare combines elements of hand painted acrylic and watercolour resulting in each print being a truly individual piece in itself. Clare also produces drypoint prints, a method of intaglio printmaking as she enjoys the rich velvety line quality it achieves. Some of these prints also combine elements of chiné-colle allowing Clare to introduce subtle areas of colour and texture into her compositions.

You can see more of Clare’s work on her website www.clarecaulfield.co.uk and also on her online Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/ClareCaulfield