Clare Caulfield

Clare Caulfield is an artist and printmaker whose work is inspired by her travels to some of the world’s greatest cities. My love of drawing lends itself perfectly to my work as a printmaker. Screenprinting allows me to transfer the lively sketchbook drawings produced whilst on location onto both paper and canvas enabling my prints to maintain a sense of spontaneity. Another technique I really enjoy working in is Drypoint. This is a method of intaglio printmaking whereby I scratch out my compositions directly onto the printing plate with an etching needle. I love drawing in this way as you have to work in reverse onto the plate so the end result will be a surprise. I’ve also experimented with chine-collé, a meticulous process which allows me to introduce colour to my monochrome pieces. I hand paint sheets of paper using watercolour washes and also use collected vintage found papers such as sheet music or old books. I cut these up into various shapes and sizes in order to depict the scene; a patchwork of rooftops, chimney pots or coloured lettering behind a Manhattan diner sign. It takes many hours to carefully arrange the cut-out fragments and tiny pieces of paper, and only when it is finally pulled through the etching press is the colour bonded to the paper and the finished print revealed. It’s a really exciting and unpredictable process which produces very limited editions.