Clare Caulfield Has A Thing for Illustrating Cities • Ellie & Co

Feeling down you haven’t been to your favourite city for a while? These energetic illustrations by English artist, Clare Caulfield, South African blogger Miss Moss recently shared, will help revive your curiosity. Clare is fascinated by architecture, whether it’s the skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan, the Grand Canal in Venice or simply Parisian life outside a bustling pavement café. Her collection includes illustrations of scenes in Venice, New York, Prague and Istanbul and all of her illustrations are for sale on her Etsy shop ranging from £50 upwards.

Her favourite city to draw is New York, she tells me, over email:

I love the energy of New York and the challenge of trying to capture the movement and bustle of the yellow taxi cabs, towering skyscrapers, diners and shop fronts. It’s full of fantastic buildings like Grand Central Station, The Chrysler and the Guggenheim as well as beautiful brownstone buildings and water towers. Like all great cities, it’s always evolving so it’s a place I can always find new inspiring things to draw and experience.” Like Brighton, I suggest? “Brighton is definitely on my list of cities to draw!” she says. “There are some amazing locations that I’d love to sketch – The Pavilion, The Pier and The Lanes. It’s been requested a good few times.”

Her distinctive ‘busy’ style gives her work energy, you can almost feel each scene vibrating with life which she attributes to a special ingredient:

I’d be lost without my sepia sketching pens. They suit my drawing style allowing me to make quick lively marks that help to reflect the energy of the cities I’m visiting. Sometimes I create a pen drawing with watercolour in just an afternoon whereas the more detailed pieces can take a number of days. It’s great to produce spontaneous work but it’s also nice to sometimes take my time and remember all the great experiences and memories from my time spent in these amazing places.”