Central Saint Martins Short course exhibition series.

We interviewed ceramicist and specialist technician Simeon Featherstone about his work in the exhibition, where he finds inspiration and his advice for aspiring creatives.

What short courses do you teach?

I teach Ceramics for Beginners, Intermediate Ceramics, and Experimental Glazing, the final frontier of ceramics.

Glaze samples

How and why did you become a ceramic practitioner?

I have a broad practice that involves ceramics and public participation. I see teaching and education as an important part of that process, especially as ceramics is a crafts subject and therefore requires technical instruction.

Simeon Featherstone

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

My inspiration and motivation comes from listening to people from all walks of life and finding ways to communicate and tell stories through craft. When working with different communities, you realise that everyone is different but often have similar stories to tell, or shared feelings and emotions. I try to reflect that when I’m working alongside them.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m currently developing new tableware for my shared practice, Parasite Ceramics. We are producing all of our wares in-house, and re-introducing more of a craft perspective. We sell tableware as commemorative pieces for the social projects we do.

Tell us about your work in the Central Saint Martins Short Courses exhibition.

There are two collections of work on display. One is for a project last year in Barking called Open Estate. I worked with residents from the Gascoigne housing estate during a period of uncertainty as the buildings were being replaced and many of the residents were rehoused. Residents helped to design and produce the pieces and we used local clay from the site to add colour and texture to the pieces.

©Simeon Featherstone, Open Estate

The second collection is a commission for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and artist Giles Round. I produced the forms for ‘We Live in the Office’, an exhibition about the evolving nature of architectural facades and how we appropriate buildings over time. The ceramic forms were painted by underglaze painters at the RIBA gallery with the public choosing the designs from a sourcebook.

©Simeon Featherstone, We Live In The Office

Which piece of creative work, in any discipline, do you think everyone should see and why?

Let’s keep it clay. So something out of the norm might be Paso Doble, by Nadj and Barcelo. A clay-based performance using the material as canvas and the body as a tool.

What’s the best bit of advice you have ever received?

Keep it simple.

©Simeon Featherstone

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

Forge your own pathway. Find your voice and stay committed to it. Over time you’ll have a body of work and the overarching narrative of that work is you and your passion.

More of Simeon’s work can be viewed on his website, Parasite Ceramics and blog. He teaches a range of short courses at Central Saint Martins, including Ceramics for Beginners,  Intermediate Ceramics, as well as Experimental Glazing, the final frontier of ceramics. Further details on all of our courses can be found on the Short Course website. Read more about Simeon on the CSM website.

As a part of our Central Saint Martins Short course exhibition series, we interviewed Karl Grupe about his work in the exhibition, where he finds inspiration and his advice for aspiring creatives.

The exhibition is open to the public in the Central Saint Martins Window Gallery at 1 Granary Square until 3 September.

What is your name and what short courses do you teach?

Hello. I’m Karl Grupe and I teach Reportage Photography, Photographers’ London and Art of Snapshot Photography at Central Saint Martins.

©Karl Grupe

How and why did you become a photography tutor?

Years ago in Vancouver I was juggling many freelance gigs. While working on getting my own editorial assignments, I worked as a advertising and editorial photographers’ assistant, a stock photographer’s studio manager, pitched projects to magazines on behalf of photographers and was the Western Canada talent scout for an international stock photography agency. I was initially invited to speak at workshops because of my knowledge and position in stock photography. Once I developed my first workshop I saw that I had a skill for building courses and teaching them. Looking into the future, I saw this as ‘future-proofing’ around a media art I really had a love for. I then began building courses for visual arts colleges and universities.

©Karl Grupe, Swissroll

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

Inspiration comes from many sources. As a visual practitioner and educator I find most of it coming from research through people/ environment watching, online, print (magazines and newspapers) and books. I am a social and cultural observer so many ideas come from reflecting on trends and changes that we are going through. Most of the time I am really listening to conversations, whether they are in the class or online.

©Karl Grupe, A Blue Wild

What are you working on at the moment?

I am in the middle of a move right now to a new studio, so everything is on hold for the summer. The studio will be in Cornwall, where I will continue examining the antithetical technical approach to landscape photography. I am interested in the currency of the photographic aesthetic. I am curious about our reliance on technology and its influence on this currency. If we screw with it and something pops out that is unexpected, curiously ugly or completely accidental then where does the value of the image rest for me as a creator, marketer of my work and in the visual arts industry?

My second project is an ethnographic documentary film on the migrants illegally crossing the border from the US to Canada. I got the doc film bug two years ago filming Pickerel Nine and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I hope that once my move is finished I can pick up on this again and head out.

©Karl Grupe, PickerelNine

Tell us about your work in the Central Saint Martins Short Courses exhibition.

A Harsh Land is the first stage of my study of the evolving currency and expectation of photography. I did my Masters thesis exploring the affect of technology democratising photography and Instagram being the global exhibition hall to witness this. The combination of the smartphone and the Instagram app revolutionised the currency of talent. Not in all respects, but in many it blew a large hole in the industry. Obviously pedigree still counts for something – but there has been a revolutionary shift in the elements contributing to the currency of popular and commercial photography.

©Karl Grupe, A Harsh Land

I reached for landscape photography as a first stage in exploring this theme further because landscape photography tends to be treated with formality. Of course there are people doing what is now called ICM photography (intentional camera movement) to escape the rigour of landscape photography but I see this as only one layer. ICM is only been elevated because there is no longer a film bill to pay and as blowback to practices like the HDR movement (high dynamic range). These ICM photographers have found the experimentation, luck and dance that happens between camera and photographer to be somewhat zen-like or creatively revolutionary. For me it is only the first stage. One layer of the reveal. You can see my practice of that here http://www.karlgrupe.com/regency and while it moves on to the journey I wish to take it is one dimensional. The images in the CSM exhibition are much more aggressive and obnoxious towards the subject. I am regarding the subject in a different way.

Which piece of creative work, in any discipline, do you think everyone should see and why?

Independent film making. For a variety of reasons. I’ll give you two examples.

One, Roger Ballen’s film Asylum of the Birds  is a behind-the-scenes documentary examining an artist photographing in a dangerous, post-apocolyptic, diasporic environment. The audio to this is both informative and impressive and shows both the tools and the commitment to his body of work over a six year period. You receive an education PLUS witness the craft in progress. I show this film in my class and it digs up everything; dedication to process, making contact with a group of people who normally would not be so accepting, working conditions and personal safety, collaboration with locals, tools and equipment, scouting, risk for one’s art, the construction of a personal vision, understanding the background to a personal visual language. It’s not an education video – it’s just something so unique, unforgettable and creative you cannot walk away from it being educated.

Two, Leviathan is a film which will completely test your patience and expectations. It is a wonderful example of what technology has done to us if we go into the movie reflecting on our uneasiness we feel while watching it – those of us who make it to the end. The trailer is nothing like the film so many people were “lured” (if you see the link please excuse the pun) into believing the film would be something maybe along the lines of The Blair Witch Project meets Jaws. It’s not. It’s simply a visceral ethnographic documentary shot with tools we all have access to – mainly Go-Pro cameras. Again, like Ballen, it is Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s experience being recorded which has led to its success. But more importantly it’s the drawn out lengthy scenes of observation which serve as the Marmite test. Movie-goers are used to 2.5 seconds as the average shot length. Leviathan goes on for long shot after long shot up to two or three minutes of the same scene making viewers squirm in their seats. It’s not that the scene is uncomfortable to watch, it instead is our diet for imagery, how we need to be fed in the context of cinema.

Both films take us through a multilayer journey, with Ballen aiming his sights on photographic books and Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel aiming their’s on cinema. Both films set up a journey for us to reflect and I think this reflection is very important when looking at being creative.

What’s the best bit of advice you have ever received?

Always hire people better than you.

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

Get your work out there. You won’t know anything about where your heading if your work is not out there.

More of Karl’s work can be viewed on his Twitter Facebook and Instagram pages.

Karl Grupe teaches a range of short courses at Central Saint Martins, including Reportage Photography, Photographers’ London and Art of Snapshot Photography. Further details on all of our courses can be found on the Short Course website.  The CSM Short Courses exhibition takes place in the Window Gallery at Central Saint Martins until 3 September 2017. To see what goes on in the CSM Short Courses classroom, follow @csmshortcourses and #MYCSM

As a part of our Central Saint Martins Short course exhibition series, we interviewed Vincent Woodcock about his work in the exhibition, where he finds inspiration and his advice for aspiring creatives.

The exhibition is open to the public in the Central Saint Martins Window Gallery at 1 Granary Square until 3 September. Visitors can expect to view some extraordinary work, including ceramics, jewellery, haute couture embroidery, fashion drawing, photography and illustration.

© Vincent Woodcock, Self-Portrait

What is your name and what short courses do you teach?

Vincent Woodcock, and I teach Character Design For Animation, Cartooning Fundamentals, Illustrating Comics and Graphic Novels, and Life Drawing For Animation Illustration and Cartooning.

How and why did you become an artist?

I’ve worked as an animator, animation director, cartoonist, character designer and illustrator for over 30 years.

I learned animation from Richard Williams and Art Babbitt and have animated and directed for Disney, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network amongst others. Passing on the skills and knowledge that I’ve acquired in my career is very rewarding.

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

I’m inspired by the drawings of artists I admire, living and dead, famous and obscure. There are an infinite amount of possible ways to make marks on paper, so I try never to repeat myself, always striving to make the next drawing a little better than the one before.

© Vincent Woodcock, Lightnin’ Hopkins

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m making a series of drawings of blues musicians and continuing my comic-strips Badgers Of Fury and Kit & Marlowe.

Tell us about your work in the Central Saint Martins Short Courses exhibition.

These drawings of mine are a typical selection of my work, which is varied. Some would say schizophrenic!

© Vincent Woodcock, Lead Belly

Which piece of creative work, in any discipline, do you think everyone should see and why?

I don’t. I would never presume to tell anyone what they should see. Everyone should find something they love for themselves and then let that work of art live inside them.

© Vincent Woodcock, Kit

© Vincent Woodcock, The Old West Series

What’s the best bit of advice you have ever received?

Richard Williams once pinned a piece of paper over my animation desk with “K.I.S.S” written on it. It took me a while to work out what it stood for.

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

Don’t aim for perfection.

More of Vincent’s work can be viewed on his Facebook and Instagram pages.

Vincent Woodcock teaches a range of short courses at Central Saint Martins, including Character Design For Animation, Cartooning Fundamentals, Illustrating Comics and Graphic Novels, and Life Drawing For Animation Illustration and Cartooning.  Further details on all of our courses can be found on the Short Course website.  The CSM Short Courses exhibition takes place in the Window Gallery at Central Saint Martins until 3 September 2017. To see what goes on in the CSM Short Courses classroom, follow @csmshortcourses and #MYCSM

Alexis Panayiotou Fashion Drawing

To celebrate and highlight the talents of our Short Course tutors, Central Saint Martins Window Gallery at 1 Granary Square is currently exhibiting some extraordinary work.  From ceramics, to jewellery, haute couture embroidery, fashion drawing, photography and illustration, the exhibition will showcase the talent of seven of our short courses tutors.  Fashion Illustrator and Central Saint Martins tutor Alexis Panayiotou contributed a large scale drawing of artist Paul Kindersley, to highlight the kinds of exercises that take place on a Fashion Drawing course.  We talk to Alexis about his work in the exhibition, where he finds inspiration and his advice for aspiring creatives.

How did you become a Fashion Illustrator?

After I finished my MA in 2004 I worked for Basso & Brooke doing illustrations for their digital textile prints. I had trained as a womenswear designer but I enjoyed doing a job where I could draw all day and I ended up staying there for 4 years before I left and took a job teaching illustration at Central Saint Martins on the BA fashion course and for the short courses in 2008.

Alexis Panayiotou, Fashion Drawing

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

The initial idea for a project can come from anywhere. I go and see as much as I can, art shows, films etc. I look at illustrators I like, and other stuff like computer games, anime and comics, I like all sorts of imagery and it all feeds into the work. I go to life drawing classes as often as I can as it’s important to keep drawing as much as possible and I find that ideas often come during the process of making work. Unexpected things can happen whilst working that I couldn’t have foreseen or planned and by the time a piece of work is finished it has usually generated further ideas.

What are you working on at the moment?

At the moment, I am working primarily on portrait painting

Tell us about your work in the CSM Short Courses exhibition.

The work in the exhibition demonstrates the kind of exercises we do on the drawing course, but on a much larger scale. I wanted to produce some figures that reveal the workings of the drawing, like an anatomy diagram you can see the ‘innards’ of the figure in layers from the initial basic skeleton, the basic shapes of the figure either drawn or using collage, and then details like print and the face, although not always necessarily in that order.

Which piece of creative work in any discipline do you most love?

I like all sorts of work, it’s very difficult to pick one piece. I go to the National Gallery a lot and I have a few favourite paintings there, I particularly like Samson and Delilah by Rubens and The Bathers at Asnieres by Seurat.  I love John Singer Sergent’s picture Carnation Lily Lily Rose at Tate Britain, it’s a beautiful study of the light quality at dusk.

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives? What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

The best advice I suppose is to persevere and to work as often as possible. Drawing is a very demanding and at times frustrating process and progress can be slow and imperceptible. Keep all your drawings good and bad and then look back on them after a few months and you will see the improvement, provided you have kept working in the meantime. Norman Rockwell said that there is always a point during the course of making a painting when you feel like it has failed and you have to summon the will to push through and finish the work. This piece of advice, and knowing that a painter as monumentally talented as he was still encountered such problems, has helped me finish many a painting that I otherwise might have trashed out of frustration

Alexis Panayiotou teaches a range of short courses at Central Saint Martins, including Life Drawing for Fashion Designers, Create a Fashion Portfolio – Intermediate and Fashion Drawing for Beginners.  Further details on all of our courses can be found on the Short Courses website http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/courses/short-courses/.  The CSM Short Courses exhibition takes place in the Window Gallery at Central Saint Martins until 3 September 2017. To see what goes on in the CSM Short Courses classroom, follow @csmshortcourses and #MYCSM

As part of our current Short Courses exhibition on display at the Granary Building, Kings Cross, Oliver O’Keeffe, Graphic Designer, Illustrator and tutor at Central Saint Martins has contributed an amazing piece work now on display as well as his stunning sketchbook work. Teaching the Illustration Workshop and Introduction to Illustration (Online) courses, as well as tutoring upon Summer Study Abroad – Graphic Design; Oliver discusses his origin story, how he stays inspired and shares his wisdom on embracing our own unique abilities.

How did you become an Illustrator?

I have always been interested in stories. As a kid I was obsessed with films and would re-watch my favourites over and over. I would get engrossed in how certain scenes would look; for example I was fascinated by the ending of the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, where the armour comes to life; I would re-enact this scene in the living room with a butter knife. I also developed a passion for comics from an early age, which helped plant the idea of drawing and narrative into my head. I loved Marvel comics, in particular the X-Men. As a ten year old, characters like Wolverine, Gambit and Rogue were very much part of my life.

I think it was only natural that from this point on I would do something with drawing and storytelling.

© Oliver O’Keeffe, Hope

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

Inspiration is a very fluid thing and can change from one year to the next. There are some staples in my life like comics, painting and film, though sometimes certain ideas will become very important.

I also have a couple of illustration projects on the go that keep me inspired. One is called 52wordsayear.com where I have to respond to a word each week; I do this with three other illustrators and the project has been going for about three years. I also take weekly drawing trips with two friends. They are both technically very accomplished so it’s really inspiring to learn from them.

© Oliver O’Keeffe, Chasm

What are you working on at the moment?

A comic book called ‘This Unheimlich Life’ about a guy who feels he can only validate his life if he is “a creative”. Unfortunately, he has no discernible creative talent. The story is really about someone who always thinks the grass is greener, he may have significant talents in other areas but is so blindsided by the idea that he must be creative that he is never really settled. The charters are also wearing costumes inspired by artists Rebecca Horn. So, lots of leather and pointy things.

Tell us about your work in the CSM Short Courses exhibition.

I run two short courses for CSM, Introduction to Illustration (Online) and Illustration Workshop. They are both designed to focus on what the student does as an image maker. Illustration is a very diverse industry with a lot of different styles and ways of working. The courses are designed to celebrate how the individual works and to find ways to help them progress. I do this by setting a number of briefs; some are more industry focused, like book covers and others are more probing, asking questions about illustration and what it can be.

Which piece of creative work in any discipline do you most love?

‘Black Hole’ by Charles Burns.

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

Don’t be alarmed if you can’t draw like Raphael, only Raphael could draw like Raphael. Find out what it is only you can do as an image maker and embrace that.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

A Buddhist on a Megabus once convinced me that drawing is a great form of meditation. So if you don’t know what to draw then draw for peace of mind.

For further information and to book your place on an upcoming course visit the Illustration Workshop, Introduction to Illustration (Online) and Summer Study Abroad – Graphic Design course pages. All available courses can be found at the Central Saint Martins Short Courses website.

Students from around the world study at Central Saint Martins on short courses taught by academic staff and alumni in our state-of-the art studios, to learn a new skill, focus on personal or professional development or to experiment with trying something new!

We are hosting an exhibition that highlights the talent of a few of our tutors.

The exhibition runs from 6 July – 4 September 2017

Come join us if you are in London!

Short Courses Exhibition, 6 July – 4 September 2017. Central Saint Martins, 1 Granary Square, Windows Gallery, The Crossing, London N1C 4AA.