Kemi Pennicott

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Happily Ever Drawn

I’m an illustrator inspired heavily by colour, adventure, play and storytelling. Working across mediums and for a range of clients, I enjoy creating worlds, characters and textures that leave you wanting to know more. I started tutoring art then running art workshops as a way to inspire and facilitate creation in an easy-going atmosphere and encourage freedom and confidence within the arts, which can sometimes feel off-putting when viewed with a perfectionist eye. My workshops explore skills, design and visual communication, all inspired or taught through a specific idea or outcome. Currently I am offering workshops in creative bookbinding, from zines to concertina books and soon even coptic binding! In the near future I will also be starting regular creative reset classes to help foster reconnection with the creative soul in a no-pressure, supportive and relaxed atmosphere.The first arty thing I ever taught ……was ceramics! I ran a ceramics club for secondary school students which was all about having fun, challenging ourselves (myself as much as them!) with new projects and ideas, sharing ideas and creativity and producing fun, whimsical works of art in a relaxed and friendly social setting. The club got so popular it was oversubscribed and I had to start another session!I’m on a mission to…… stimulate imaginative curiousity and love of drawing and craft, in order to keep fanning the flame of human creativity. I really believe practicing art can help us in so many areas of life, a fact which is now confirmed through neuroscience too! In an era when there is so much competition for our attention and time; and forces conspire to convince us we aren’t going to be good enough, or to just stay pacified as consumers, I believe that regularly creating stuff with our hands can connect us to something far older and grander than ourselves and also basically save our souls. Yes, art is existential.When I’m teaching art workshops……I’m always inspired to see what the students will do with the brief! I think of myself more as a facilitator- I’m not there to give firm instructions and a strict how-to every time, I’m there to help spark ideas, to get you started, guide, and help you unlock what is already within you.Teaching others has taught me…… honestly, a lot! From technical stuff to different viewpoints and interesting ways of thinking- I’ve learned a lot from all my students. I have taught in an unusually diverse range of establishments, from mainstream to Waldorf, in both state and private, and have built a career educating humans between the ages of 3-18 and also working as a guest lecturer in a leading arts university. Throughout my time as a teacher not only did I develop a lot of patience (!), but also how everybody can teach everybody else something, even the littlest of us.