Glyn Brewerton brings a broad range of industry and drawing research experiences to teaching, that are informed by creative relationships with a wide range of creative people, whose processes work in harmony with illustration including musicians; performance artists; animators; graphic designers; schools and community groups. He enjoys the challenges that new media presents to illustrators, and how craft and digital media combine.
The approaches explored during my MA utilised the internet and opened many possibilities for how illustration can be applied and interacted with. This work influenced the trajectory of my professional career for a number of years working on illustrated / interactive websites. The collaboration with varied creative partners taught me how illustrators can function as in integral player in the entire realisation and process of an idea, and shouldn’t be solely dependant on given ideas, content and sources of information.
My current research ideas aim to use oral history and documentation of living history to create drawings and recordings of real life events. My aspiration in the future is to explore how I may apply gathered oral histories and reportage drawings in an imaginative and authentic way to a digital oral history archive project, that would be used in museums and public spaces.
I am passionate about working with schools and community, and in the future I would like to do more creative project work that engages the public, particularly those living in rural areas.
Commercial illustration practice
- January 2001 – July 2011: Freelance commercial illustrator represented by New Division illustration Agency: Clients included Cimex Ltd for the BBC; New English Design; Vodaphone; Warburtons; Orchard Publishing; Templar Publishing; IPC Media; Healthy Living Magazine; Talent Circus for The Research Lab; The Surdhwani Music Foundation; Rechord; Koded; Glue London
- October 2005 – July 2006: Images 29, Association of Illustrators ‘Best of British contemporary illustration’ 2005, exhibitor. The Mall Galleries, London and touring exhibition
Research practice
- 18-21 May 2021: Contributor to 52nd Conference of Irish Geographers ‘Art and Geography’, Trinity College Dublin. Paper ‘Connecting Urban Communities with Nature: Mapping the Norfolk Broads’
- February 2021: Contributor to the 11th Annual Illustration Research Conference ‘Education and Illustration: Models, Methods, Paradigms’ at Kingston University. Academic Poster titled ‘Illustration as a conduit for Outdoor Education’
- July 2020: Longlisted – Trinity Buoys Drawing Prize
- December 2020: Contributor to the ‘New Perspectives on the Rural: Landscape, Community and Creativity’ Symposium at Norwich University of the Arts. Paper delivered titled ‘Reconnecting with Nature’
- January 2020: Exhibitor ‘Mapping the Broads: Creativity and Community’ at the Norwich University of the Arts, East Gallery.
- January 2017 – January 2020: Heritage Lottery funded work for the project ‘Water, Mills and Marshes’ in association with the Broads Authority and the Landscape partnership. Work consisted of drawings that mapped sightings and commentary from the Wheatfen Broad visitor’s book, and collaborations with Acle Academy for a publication titled ‘Yare, Polkey’s and Halvergate – an illustrated visit’, which captured interpretations of the Broads landscape by of a class of Year 8 school pupils. Documentation consisted of a film titled ‘Reconnecting with nature’ that recorded the development of work produced for the ‘Mapping the Broads: Creativity and Community’ exhibition
- January – February 2015: ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ at the NUA Gallery. An exhibition of NUA staff creative practice.
- February 2012: Exhibitor ‘The Magic Theatre’ exhibition of drawing
- October 2009: Drawing Journeys, exhibition of drawings at The Norwich Arts Centre
- October 2008: Drawing Breath – Fundicoa Lugar De Resende, Porto, Portugal
- March 2008: Drawing Journeys: The Workhouse Museum Southwell, Nottingham. Exhibited and curated an exhibition of drawings in association with The Artspace Southwell, The National Trust, Coventry University. Works explored the duality between photography and drawing as recording methods, and documented the changing rural and industrial landscape of Wales and parts of Northern England
- December 2007: RE:Cognition. Herbert Gallery, Coventry
- February 2007: Zoom Quartet vs Wacom 2, Live digital drawing at the Flatpack Festival in Birmingham
- October 2007- July 2008: Jerwood Drawing Prize, shortlisted exhibitor
- July – December 2006: The legs that Made us: Walking The Pennine Way. Dance City – The National Centre for Contemporary Dance, Newcastle–Upon-Tyne. Exhibition of drawings that documented events and environments that took place during a two-week expedition across the Pennine Way. Funded by the Arts Council of England and Dance City
Publications
- March 2012: Publisher of ‘A Curious Meander’ by Sorrel Muggridge. ISBN – 978-0-9559149-1-1
- May 2008: Ghosts in the wilderness – Drawings by Glyn Brewerton – Designed and published by Glyn Brewerton. Text by Dr Richard Davey.
- ISBN – 978-0-9559149-0-4
- September 2007: Jerwood Drawing Prize – Published by Wimbledon School of Art, London, UK. ISBN – 978 -0-9556646-0-1
- December 2006: The legs that made us: Walking the Pennine Way – published by the Arts Council of England, Newcastle – Upon – Tyne UK. ISBN – 095490731-0
- March 2006 & April 2008: The Big Book of Illustration Ideas 1 & 2, Edited by Roger Walton, published by Harper Collins Canada. ISBN – 13: 978-0061215148 & ISBN -13:978-0060852610 respectively
- October 2005: Images 29, Association of Illustrators “ Best of British contemporary illustration” 2005 published by Rotovision and The Association of illustrators, London, UK. ISBN – 0-9515448-7-X
- October 2005: Ten 4 Magazine, Channel 4 Ideas Factory “Anatomy of a Portfolio” – an article for students on portfolio presentation.
Other academic activities
- Academic Consultancy
- October 2020 – Present: University of Hertfordshire. External Examiner for BA(Hons) Graphics and Illustration.
- September 2013 – July 2015: Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) External Examiner for BA(Hons) Illustration.
- March 2013: Cleveland College of Art and Design in Hartlepool. External panel member for the validation of the BA(Hons) Illustration for Commercial Application course.
- July 2011: : University College Falmouth. External panel member for the validation of the BA(Hons) Drawing course.
- October 2007: : The University of Derby. External panel member for the validation of the BA(Hons) Visual Communication course
Memberships
- Norwich University of the Arts – Senate membership 2016-19
- Member of NUA Council (academic representative) 2016-18
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Artists
- The Association of Illustrators
- D&AD
Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Illustration
