Katherine Soutar
Illustrator
Describe who you are and what you do.
I am an illustrator who specialises in working with Folklore, folk tales, and traditional stories, I work in watercolour and ink on paper. My works are small and detailed and often contain elements of my own story as well as the one I am depicting.
How and where do you work to create your art?
It varies to be honest, I can be making notes and sketching almost anywhere, but the bulk of my finished work is produced at a small ex-school desk I bought when I started Goldsmiths University in 1989 and which now lives in a corner of the bedroom.
Who do you most admire artistically?
Dead: Arthur Rackam, Edmound Dulac, Kay Nielson, Marc Chagall, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Maurice Sendak, Mervyn Peake.
Alive: Helen Oxenbury, Quentin Blake, Ed Org, Jana Heidersdorf, Judith Kerr, I could go on...
Describe a situation that inspired you.
I can't think of one particular thing, inspiration feels more like a process than an event for me. All life events and situations feed into that I think...
What memorable responses have you had to your work?
My favourite might be that of a group of refugee women in Ireland who used one of my works as a starting point for creating their own stories as they found it spoke to them of their own experience somehow. I felt very humbled by this.
Name something you love, and why?
Poetry. Poetry is the purest form of expression that words can create I think. My desert island book would have to be a poetry book.
What is your dream project?
Illustrating some of my favourite poems would be a wonderful project to work on. I have several dream projects bubbling quietly away on the stove right now, but that one has so far eluded me.
Favourite or most inspirational space?
I love wild places, I live next to woodland and walk there often. I try to be at the coast breathing the salt laden breezes whenever I can. But the Sahra desert probably has caught my imagination and my heart mor ethan any other place recently.
What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
Quentin Blake was once asked ho two become good at illustration. 'Do it a lot' he replied. I think that is the single most important piece of advice any artist can be given.
www.katherinesoutarillustration.com
