Artist Interview: Caroline Tomlinson’s Work is Inspired by Travel and Her ‘Flow State’

Caroline Tomlinson is a London-based artist whose illustrative work features a very organic style of highlighting her interests and experience.

Along with her beautiful hand-drawn artwork she sells on her website, Caroline has worked with luxury brands designing pajamas, shirts, cookbooks, ceramics, and wine labels. Besides father and son matching swimwear, this is her first true menswear collection, and we’re proud to introduce this exclusive collaboration — which she described as a “U.K. summer story.”

From her home in London, Caroline sat down to discuss where her inspiration comes from and how she keeps from getting burnt out as an artist.

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The Tie Bar: Thank you so much for meeting today! If you could start by introducing yourself, who you are, and what you do.

Caroline Tomlinson: I’m an illustrator and artist. I live in London. A lot of my work is inspired by travel and, I suppose, lifestyle. I always say “places, faces, and food” — which doesn’t rhyme so nicely. It’s quite broad. I think it’s very much an extension of myself.

I’ve always traveled quite extensively and lived in lots of different places around the world and because of that, I think, it’s like anything, right? It infiltrates all aspects of your life, and it’s resulted in me creating a portfolio of work that’s enabled me to work with some really amazing clients because of that, so I’m very fortunate.

TTB: Where have you lived in the world?

CT: I lived in New Zealand for a while, and then I lived in Cape Town, South Africa, for about five years and fell in with South Africa. And then I moved back. I basically spent about seven years outside of London, so I’m from London.

And then in my 30s, I started to get really sort of burnt out, because I was working as a designer and the lifestyle — oh, I don’t know. You just start to feel a bit disillusioned, sometimes don’t you? And I was always desperate to be an illustrator, but I couldn’t work out how to get from A to B, because obviously in London it’s very expensive, and I was sort of doing things on the side, but you kind of need to invest quite a lot of time to get any traction. And I started to feel very much like I needed to leave London. So that’s how it sort of all came about. And this was all by coincidence as well. It’s not like I had this grand strategy at all. It was very much free fall.

But when I left London, I started to have a bit more opportunity to not worry about paying rent, essentially, right? I then had a little bit more space to sort of invest in this career that I always dreamt of, but I didn’t know how to get to it. And then over this sort of seven year hiatus of living in these different cities, I gradually could build a portfolio, then I got agents, and then when I returned to London, I returned as kind of like a new version of me.

And that’s why I always say the story, because the travel side is so integral to me as a person and, like, I suppose life decisions and all those different paths you could take, and that’s why I find it really, I suppose, almost important that I create work that feels true to what I’m about. Does that make sense? It’d be a bit weird if I started doing something completely left of field for me.

TTB: What is it like seeing people wearing your designs?

CT: It’s always exciting. You can’t help but feel chuffed. It’s like when you see a book on the shelf and you’ve done — like, it’s exciting, because also it’s a physical thing. I don’t know, I always sort of say when you were at art college and you don’t know about any of all the trials and tribulations of getting to a place where you can do something full-time, whatever that is — it doesn’t have to be illustration, per se — you just think, “Oh, imagine if I see my stuff on a T-shirt.” And then when it happens, you immediately revert to that younger version of yourself, where you’re like, “Oh my God!”

It doesn’t get old. And actually, if it did get old, and you were jaded, you should probably stop doing it, because it’s one of the highlights, don’t you think? It’s exciting.

TTB: There’s something very organic about these pieces, and I saw on your website an art teacher once told you, “Just take the line for a walk.” Does that still resonate with you today?

CT: It still resonates because I think we can all get very precious about whatever it is we’re doing in life. And I think to me, where I’m almost in a bit of a flow state, and you’re not thinking about perhaps the end result, it’s more like literally being in the present moment.

I know that’s kind of cliché, saying being in the present, but when you do just take it for a walk and see what happens, as opposed to having a set destination, which again sort of ties in with my whole sort of outlook on life is just to see where you end up. It’s like a flow state.

I don’t think you can — well, I can’t anyway, other people might go to it — I can’t retain a sense of sort of energy and fluidity if I sort of tighten up and try and control it too much, you know?

TTB: You recently started uploading blog posts that are nice, personal reflections on life and art.

CT: Yes, I’m trying. There’s two reasons for that.

I read a lot. I’m, like, a voracious reader. And I think if people like to read, invariably at some point, you sort of think, “I might write a little,” because you have all these thoughts.

So it’s kind of, like, to give myself another creative outlet as opposed to just drawing and scribbling, you know? So that was sort of for selfish, creative reasons, but also, I think with this age of AI, especially, because I think we’re all feeling it in different ways this year, but especially as a creative, I think it became more prevalent to put yourself out there more and tell your story more because people buy people. And that’s something AI will never — I mean, who knows, but — can’t compete on currently.

It might be able to mimic, it might be able to do a bad version of, but my whole body of work hasn’t just come because I like sunbathing and going on a holiday, it’s come from this whole outlook on life about trying new things and going with the flow and trying new cities and that sort of infiltrated everything. And AI can’t do that. And I think the more you share of yourself, even though I find it a bit uncomfortable sometimes because you can feel a bit exposed, the more interesting your work becomes, because there’s more to it. There’s a depth to it, as opposed to just being a stylized illustration because there’s always something more to everyone, right?

TTB: You’ve also recently been working as a mentor for recent graduates. What has that been like for you?

CT: It’s been really interesting. So, every Friday at 4 o’clock — because it’s the easiest time. Four till five is relatively easy to manage because you’ve probably hit all your deadlines, most clients don’t want a meeting, even the Americans — and you Americans love a late meeting — so it kind of works out. It’s a really nice way for me to wind down into the weekend. But most importantly, I just, I actually get a lot from it because a few years ago, it sort of faded out a little because of lockdown.

I used to teach or lecture at illustration art colleges, and it’s so inspiring because these kids are so ready to go and they’ve got so much energy. And then I really missed it, and I thought, “You know what? I never had that.” And it meant that I made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of time and just did things badly for a while.

And just sometimes, an hour’s chat can sort of set you on a path where you go, “Oh, okay, I actually have got a bit more of a clue.” So it was kind of like paying it forward. It’s very much trying to be good karma and good energy and see what happens.

I think it’s again, sort of taking the positives out of social media and the negatives. There’s a lot of non-connections, right? And it’s nice to connect with people properly, and then an hour chat with another creative is rarely wasted. You always learn something. So it’s nice. I love it. It’s ongoing.

Caroline Tomlinson