Arts Scholars are inspired by workshop with illustrator Karin Eklund
The Visual Arts department at St Mary’s Cambridge was delighted to be able to offer all 20 Art Scholars a workshop with Karin Eklund, a Cambridge-based illustrator, lecturer and yoga teacher. Her work, consisting mainly of illustrations for children's books and Apps — including Hilma af Klint: Mapping the Invisible (2020) and Kids Yoga (2017) — can be viewed here. Karin is also an Associate Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and teaches a highly regarded MA in Children's Book Illustration, BA Illustration class and the Foundation Course in Art and Design. On Wednesday, she shared her expertise with our talented artists.
Head of Art Ms Conroy said,
‘Illustration is a growing field of employment within the creative arts sector and many of our students are interested in studying it at a higher educational level. It is important to us that those students studying our discipline have contact with and learn from professional illustrators. Illustrations are essential for helping people to develop and explore their imagination. They also support in developing more refined visual literacy skills.’
The students agreed that the workshop was an exciting opportunity to speak to a professional artist and understand the beautiful world of illustrations. Reflecting on the experience, Yan Ko T. in Year 12 said ‘I learned that Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistake.’ For Miranda Q. in Year 12, ‘it was really interesting to hear how the inspiration for illustrations can be found anywhere, whether through photographs or magazines. Year 9 student Elena B. found Karin’s work ‘very inspiring to look’ and learned ‘a lot from the presentation and the techniques we were taught’. Amie B. in Year 11 found it ‘really cool to learn about how professional artists work and gain inspiration and develop artwork outside of the normal curriculum’.
As these illustrations and the students' testimony show, we very much enjoyed welcoming Karin to our creative community.