Adam Withington - The Office

Describe your work

I manage Great Western Studios.

How did you come to do the work that you do?

I thought that artists would be interesting to be around and . . . thankfully, twelve years later, I still think that artists are interesting people to be around.

Where do you look for inspiration?

I'm an inveterate magazine reader - Monocle, frieze, Gardens Illustrated, Esquire, Elle Decoration, Icon, Wallpaper . . . even, if push comes to shove, the Sainsbury's magazine.

What is your favourite place?

The coastal footpath between Cape Cornwall and Sennen.

If you could own one piece of work what would it be?

White Curve VII by Ellsworth Kelly - but only if I had the wallspace to do it justice.

What is your favourite website?

Where to start . . . Pan Global Plants, Present & Correct, The Sartorialist, Modern Craft.

Alice Tait - Studio 11

Describe your work

My desk is piled with drawings from life, hand drawn type, inky marks and a scanner.

How did you come to do the work that you do?

There was never a question of doing anything else. When I was little I used to read Famous Five and plan how I’d do the illustrations if it were me.

Where do you look for inspiration?

The sky from Great Western studios windows.

What is your favourite place?

Where ever Sean and Roger are.

If you could own one piece of work what would it be?

An Emily Young please! Or a grumpy man from either Georges Grosz or Ben Shahn.

What is your favourite website?

www.audible.co.uk This year I have discovered talking books! I am on the brink of an obsession with Poirot.

Alice Tait

Kate Banazi - ex studio 28, now in Sydney

1. Describe your work

Screenprinting, drawing, painting and sometimes sewing.

2. How did you come to be doing the work that you do?

My parents were old style graphic designers and typographers so taught me to wield a scalpel and draw a straight line from a very young age. My apparent skill should have been channelled towards brain surgery, quite obviously, but that was soon scuppered when I fainted whilst dissecting a rat at school. There after I swore only to slice paper. And the odd bit of self surgery.

3. Where do you look for inspiration?

Under bridges and up mountains. Specifically Anzac bridge and the Blue Mountains.

4. What is your favourite place?

Tasmania or the top of Parliament Hill, London.
Quite extreme in their differences.

5. If you could own one piece of art what would it be?

A picture that was accidentally thrown away, drawn for me by my son when he was 7.

6. What is your favourite website?

Google images, especially street view.
Its weird and a little bit wrong.

Kate Banazi

Sophie Molins - Studio 36

1. Describe your work

Mostly photographs, a few short films, and at the
moment it’s drawing a monkey a day to make a website
in honour of the things we are loosing in our
evolution.

2. How did you come to be doing the work that you do?

How long have you got.? I’ve always made things,
looked at things and been profoundly moved by certain
other works, so i went to art school to learn…

3. Where do you look for inspiration?

Good friends, interesting humans, galleries, books,
conversations, talks, meditation. They all put me in
the spirit.

4. What is your favourite place?

London even though I get away as much as I can I got
so London sick when I lived abroad. Born here.

5. If you could own one piece of art what would it be?

Raft of Medusa

6. What is your favourite website?

http://www.thenag.net

Sophie Molins

Jay Burridge - Studio 6

1. Describe your work.

Kids toys from Lilliput. The theme which has run throughout all my work has been a question of scale. Children's toys are often scaled down simplified versions of everyday things in the world, I reverse this and scale them back up to life size but retaining a childlike simplicity.

2. How did you come to be doing the work that you do?

Luckily for me, my brother and sister, our parents met at the Royal Collage of Art in the Pop Art Revolution so we had paint and pencils thrust on us as soon as we could hold them.

I was never going to be an academic.

3. Where do you look for inspiration?

Toys'R'us and my old sketchbooks. My artwork needs to mature over time between the pages before it's ripe for making.

4. What is your favourite place?

In bed cuddling my family on a lazy morning.

5. If you could own one piece of art what would it be?

Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Horse There's always one on display at the Pompidou in Paris and luckily for me I get to go at least 3 times a year and stand in front of it for a day or so.

6. What is your favourite website?

Totally biased but it has to be my little fashion project Lucky Seven custom made caps www.luckyseven.tv About four years ago I had a foray in to the fashion world which resulted in me meeting my wife and starting this company supplying bespoke baseball caps to discerning customers world wide.

The other site I look at every day is the Wooster Collective www.woostercollective.com

Jo Ratcliffe - Studio 6

1. Describe your work.

Currently I am drawing, painting and printmaking.

2. How did you come to be doing the work that you do?

When I was 16 I used to write the slate signs for the produce department of a supermarket, it was a glamorous job, I even had my own office but I was hungry for more.

3. Where do you look for inspiration?

Dirty streets, rolling fields, google images & most haunted.

4. What is your favourite place?

Bed in the morning.

5. If you could own one piece of art what would it be?

For the bathroom anything by Gustav Dore from his series of illustrations of ‘The Divine Comedy’ or ‘Death Depicted as the Grim Reaper on Top of the World’ for the hallway Gustave Courbet - The Origin of the World, for the study Carolus-Duran - Equestrian Portrait of Mademoiselle Croizette and for the living room a Glen Brown or a Eugène Carrière painting.

6. What is your favourite website?

Google images!

Jo Ratcliffe

Katherine Lubar - Studio 44

1. Describe your work.

Light patterns on man-made structures, usually interiors. For the past couple of years, I’ve been working on a series of lamp paintings – which I see, in a way, as portraits - they have a sort of human character to them.

2. How did you come to be doing the work that you do?

Actually, I can't remember a time when I wasn't painting or drawing, even when I was 2 and drawing on the wall, apparently!

3. Where do you look for inspiration?

Light, shadow, architecture, the colours in nature. Artists I've been influenced by: Michael Craig-Martin, Patrick Caulfield, Wayne Thiebauld, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Edward Hopper

4. What is your favourite place?

Would have to be the Maldives... if only I could afford to go back!

Also Puck's Glen in Scotland - a magical place

5. If you could own one piece of art what would it be?

St George and the Dragon by Uccello or one of Memling's triptychs


6. What is your favourite website?

interesting stuff about colour: coloracademy

to help the world: The Hunger Site, and the Rainforest site, Animal Rescue site, etc. etc.

and lastly, the craziness that is the US - The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Katherine Lubar