Biographies & CV's
There have been many contributors to Insider Art courses and events. Just a few of them are listed here.
Our contributors have between them an enormous range and depth of experience, training in the arts, health care, mental health issues, and therapy.
Most have come from arts backgrounds, and many still practice and exhibit as artists.
The directors of Insider Art are:
Malcolm Learmonth retired as Lead Art Psychotherapist with the Creative Therapies Service, Devon Partnership NHS Trust and Arts & Environments Development Lead.in 2015. He has provided training for the universities of Exeter and Plymouth, Devon Social Services, The Peninsula Medical School, and many other organisations. He is Chair of the Trustees for the Self Heal Association, a registered charity, is a Council Member and Arts and Health Lead for the British Association of Art Therapists, and contributes to the development of the arts in health nationally. He is BAAT registered as a supervisor and Private Practitioner. He has also worked with the Health Professions Council as a course visitor. Malcolm has made regular contributions to national and international art therapy conferences, and has published widely. Some of these papers are available from the documents and publications page of this site. He is a landscape painter at heart but his current artwork is largely digital. Some current work can be found in his gallery in the ‘Archive’ section of this site.
Karen Huckvale is an artist, Art Psychotherapist and trainer with a background in Art Education. She has many years’ experience working in NHS adolescent, assertive outreach and acute services. Karen currently works part time within Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services for Devon Primary Care NHS Trust. Karen has a small private practice working with adults and young people over 16 years old. She is a British Association of Art Therapists approved supervisor. Karen is a director and treasurer of the registered charity Arts & Health South West and trustee and secretary of the Self Heal Association, an arts and therapies registered charity,. She is a practising and exhibiting artist currently working mainly with photography. She also works as an artist in Arts & Health settings. Some recent work can be found on her gallery page in the Archive section of the site.
Some of our contributors are listed below. All Art Therapists/ Art Psychotherapists are registered with the Health Professions Council.
Julie Thompson originally trained as an Occupational Therapist and has undertaken further training as a Play Therapist, being fortunate enough to train under the late Ann Cattanach, she has also completed training in Filial Therapy and techniques from Theraplay© Julie has worked for many years in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health services in inpatient, day-patient and community services. During this time she has worked with many children and young people who are in care or who have been adopted, and so has developed an interest in working with attachment issues. She has particular interests in using creative approaches, group-work and in working with children and parents/carers together. She has several years’ experience of delivering training for other professionals, trainees and parents/carers, particularly in the area of play and creative approaches. Julie is registered with the Health Professions Council as an Occupational Therapist; is a member of the British Association of Occupational Therapists, and of the British Association of Play Therapists.
The late Joolz McLay trained in Fine Art at Cleveland College of Art and Newcastle Polytechnic. She was then involved in setting up a women’s circus group with fire sculptures her speciality. In 1993 Joolz took the Post Graduate Diploma in Art Therapy at Sheffield University and for the next thirteen years, until ill-health retirement in 2007, worked as a child and adolescent Art Therapist delivering a variety of inpatient and community services for young people in Sheffield N.H.S. She was also an Art Therapy Clinical Supervisor and Group Supervisor at Sheffield Art Therapy Training course and Visiting Lecturer at various courses including the Art Therapy Training Course Sheffield, the E.N.B 603 Psychiatric Nurse Training (Sheffield N.H.S) and The BMedSci in Health and Human Sciences at S.c.H.A.R.R (School of Health and Related Research) Sheffield University. Joolz’s interests were always varied and included watching meteorite showers, anarchism, art, philosophy, time travel, collecting design items from the 50s and 60s and gardening. Joolz died in January 2009. Her book: Love, Desire & Teen Spirit: Reflections on Adolescent Eros was written during her terminal illness and published at the end of December 2008.
Shellee Burroughs is a Canadian trained art psychotherapist who works within the voluntary sector providing support for children and young people who have experienced various forms of abuse. Her areas of expertise include working with victims of childhood abuse and adolescents experiencing mental health problems within a Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service and in educational settings.
Hermoine Skrine is a practising painter. She teaches painting and drawing for Upstream, Age Concern and the W.E.A. Having been trained at St Martins in Fashion Design, she still makes clothes, currently for the Cygnet Theatre, and also teaches felt-making and embroidery. She is working on a book about ancient dress.
Anne Marie Blake is a qualified Art and Family Therapist, with 20 years’ experience of working with children, young people and families. She is currently employed by Somerset NHS Partnership in the child, adolescent and family therapy team working with 5 to 17 year olds, both individually, and with their families or carers. Anne Marie is completing her MSc at Bristol University, researching the role of systemic thinking and psychoanalysis in reflecting team practice. She is a visiting lecturer on the Postgraduate Art Therapy Training in Ireland.
Diana Collins was born on an island off the Pacific coast of Canada. She moved to the UK to train as a Theatre Designer in the 1980’s. She completed her degree in Art & Social Contexts at Dartington and subsequently taught theoretical and practical arts based subjects including Visual Performance and Cultural Theory. She works as an Art Psychotherapist in Child & Adolescent Mental Health services in Plymouth and for Sure Start with mothers suffering from post natal depression. She is a member of Dartington Printmakers as a printmaker and book artist. Diana loves drawing and sea kayaking.
Brenda Rawlinson is Head Therapist at the Creative Therapies Service, Exeter. Brenda introduced a Sand Tray Therapy Service into the Creative Therapies Team in 1987. The therapy has now been extended to other service areas and practitioner, supported by a supervision and training group. Brenda’s work covers the whole spectrum of Mental Health and Learning Difficulties. She is particularly interested in Archetypal and Jungian models of working.
Lynn McClelland is a Clinical Psychologist and Lecturer interested in creative approaches to mental health. She has 10 years’ experience working with women, young people and families and is interested in the use of sand play to reflect on personal experience and professional work within NHS settings.
Martin Hunwicks works for Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Gina Williams is an Occupational Therapist working for the Indigo Project at Crediton Neighbourhood Family Centre.
Penelope Hall works for Cornwall Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and is involved with Child and Family work at SureStart. She is British Association of Art Therapists approved for private practice and as a supervisor. Her private practice is based in mid Cornwall. She is co-ordinator for the Art Therapy Foundation course in Truro.
Marian Liebmann has worked in art therapy with offenders, with women’s groups and community groups, and currently at the InnerCity Mental Health service in Bristol. She teaches and lectures on art therapy at several universities in the UK and Ireland. She also works on mediation and conflict resolution, and has run Art & Conflict workshops in many countries. She has written eight books, including Art Therapy for Groups (second edition February 2004) and Arts Approaches to Conflict.
Nadija Corcos is Lead Art Psychotherapist for Avon and Wiltshire NHS Mental Health Trust in Weston-super-Mare.
David Maclagan is an artist, Art Therapist, author and lecturer. He pioneered an Art and Psychotherapy MA at the Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, University of Sheffield, and taught trainee art therapists for many years. He has published numerous articles on Outsider Art, art therapy and imaginal psychology, as well as writing several artists’ catalogues. His books include ‘Creation Myths’ and ‘Psychological Aesthetics.’
Stephen Pettet Smith is the manager of Exeter Health Care Arts. This was established in 1991 as the arts project for the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust. The organisation's work has three main strands: Exhibition of artists' work in public and clinical areas of hospitals; Environmental schemes in public and clinical areas, both inside and out; Live art events for the public at large and within the wards of hospitals.
Emma Molony artist printmaker. Emma works for Double Elephant Print Workshop in Exeter and is involved in arts and health outreach work with school and with people who use mental health services.
Rob Wynne has been the Co-ordinator of Magic Carpet for the last five years and has overseen a large growth in services. Magic Carpet works in the local community with people who are disabled or disadvantaged, for people with learning disabilities, mental health problems and those with severe and profound disabilities. They run a variety of creative sessions in community locations in Exeter and East Devon. They encourage participation in the community; have exhibitions and performances of the work of their participants and support development through attending other courses and colleges. Rob has a degree in Fine Art from Cheltenham and a Certificate in Managing Voluntary Organisations from the Open University. He was a painter before parenthood and DIY took its toll and intends to practice as an artist in the future.
Barrie Damarell has twenty years’ experience of working as an Art Psychotherapist with people with learning difficulties who experience periods of troubled wellbeing. He is particularly interested in how the people with whom he works, conceptualise, interpret, and attribute meaning to art making and the consequences for art psychotherapy practice. He is a fanatic ‘Gunners’ fan, a sculptor, visiting tutor and examiner for Goldsmiths College, part-time research student and Head of Arts Therapies for the Plymouth Learning Difficulties Partnership.
Robin Tipple decided to become an artist after 7 years in the RAF He spent 6 years at art school, Norwich School of Art and Reading University, then he began searching for studio space and working in London. He eventually found himself on a mural project in Bethnal Green Hospital and this lead to him learning about Art Therapy. After training at Goldsmiths College he began work in the NHS with adults who have learning disabilities and mental health problems. He has also worked with children who have experienced abuse and is currently working in a paediatric disability setting as well as teaching on the Art Psychotherapy course at Goldsmiths. His early explorations in art therapy were focussed on developing psychotherapeutic approaches to work with the learning disabled, exploring the application of Kleinian and object relations theories to art therapy. More recently he has tried to understand art therapy in a broader, more social and cultural context, in particular researching the discourses used in art therapy to relate the art work to the client.