Carla Daly

The City Illustrations of Carla Daly

Carla Daly brings the world's most recognisable landmarks to life through a warm, colourful illustrative style rooted in her Irish background and years spent in Africa. Her approach is not photographic — she interprets cities through bold colour, simplified forms, and a sense of joy that makes each piece feel like a personal postcard rather than a tourist snapshot. The collection includes Paris with its Eiffel Tower, Barcelona's Sagrada Familia, London's Big Ben along the Thames, New York's Times Square, and Toronto's CN Tower. Each illustration balances architectural accuracy with artistic freedom, capturing the spirit of a place rather than its exact likeness.

What gives Daly's work its distinctive quality is the combination of whimsy and craft. Her backgrounds are layered with detail — passing figures, street scenes, changing skies — while the main subjects stand with graphic clarity. The result is work that rewards close viewing while also reading cleanly from across a room. There is a storybook quality to her compositions that appeals across ages, making them equally at home in a living room, a hallway, or a child's bedroom where travel and curiosity are themes worth encouraging.

Print Formats and Framing

All Carla Daly prints are available on 225g matte fine art paper in A3, 50x70 cm, 70x100 cm, and A0. The matte surface captures the fine linework and colour gradations in her illustrations with precision, reproducing the subtle layering in her backgrounds without losing the crispness of her architectural outlines. Frame options include oak, black, and walnut brown. Oak frames enhance the warmth in her palette, while black provides a modern contrast that suits urban subject matter. Walnut brown works well as a middle ground, adding depth without competing with the colour.

Canvas prints are also available in 30x40 cm, 50x70 cm, and 70x100 cm, with an optional floating frame. The canvas texture adds a painterly quality to her illustrative line, giving the city scenes additional depth and a more relaxed, artistic feel compared to the precision of paper.

Pairing with Other Collections

Daly's travel illustrations pair naturally with other city and travel art in the Kuriosis collection. For a thematic wall, combine her European landmarks with architectural prints from our contemporary artists collection. Her colourful style also works well alongside other colourful art prints for a lively, eclectic arrangement. A set of two or three Daly prints — say Paris, London, and Barcelona — creates a European travel theme that tells a coherent visual story.

All prints are produced in our Berlin studio using archival pigment inks rated for 100+ years.