OCA News: Farewell to Simon Manfield

As a Programme Leader, it is always with mixed feelings that I hear a tutor is leaving to go and do something exciting with the practice. I am of course pleased, as one artist to another, that drawing tutor Simon Manfield has taken that bold step to focus on his own practice, but we will all miss him dreadfully. The balance of the drawing department will take time to resettle without his calm and generous presence. I took the time before he leaves to have a conversation with him about his time with us and his plans.

ED: OCA has changed so much over the time we have worked together, Simon. Do you have any memories you can share about the early days (buckets and cooked breakfasts!) And what would you say you have enjoyed the most about your time with OCA?

SM: Yes, Emma, much has changed over the last 12 years for me and for the OCA.

I remember well my Skype interview with Alison Churchill (Director of Teaching at the time), neither of us being able to maintain visual contact, so reverting to an audio interview. I liked this sort of relaxed working out of an awkward situation; it put me at ease. This sums up for me the atmosphere at the OCA in 2012. Relaxed and adaptable not the formal claustrophobic academia I had been used to teaching at Bradford University but a more open-minded attitude to art education. It was a dream. I felt proud to be welcomed into this close-knit group of like-minded artist educators. What also excited me was that I could do it all from home, in close proximity to my own work and studio. This, however, would eventually become a bit of a frustration for me all the while looking at inspiring students’ work as my own lay quietly needing attention.

I remember fondly long early morning trips from West Yorkshire to the Redbrook Business Estate in Barnsley for assessment, confronted by stacks of portfolios piled on table tops, working closely with colleagues I rarely saw, exchanging thoughts and ideas. Ordinarily I would return home at the end of the day, only latterly, before Covid lockdown and the change of assessment format, that I stayed over at the Premier Inn in Barnsley. I regret not having done that more often. I liked the comradeship of my colleagues and the chance to get to know them better.

ED: Yes, I went to the Barnsley Premier Inn in the summer, and amazingly, the staff remembered me from all those years ago; it made me wonder how I might have made an exhibition of myself! You have contributed to the BA (Hons) Drawing curriculum with aspects of narrative and attentive practices, and this stems from your own art work, which has emerged from some incredible relationships and collaborations. What do you have planned for yourself and your drawing in the year ahead?

SM: Yes, I’ve been both fortunate and eagle-eyed with my collaborations. I love research and storytelling, and the projects I have sought or that have found me utilise both those elements, but particularly narrative within a framework of historical memory. This interest first presented itself in ‘Memoria Historica’, a series of drawings documenting the excavation of a Spanish Civil War-era mass grave, and then ‘Orcadians: Seven Impromptus’, which was my visual response to Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown’s poem cycle of the same name. This led, or in a way was a natural progression to my continuing work on ‘Monuments and Memory’, a drawing project focussing on St Kilda, the far-flung archipelago 65 km north-west of Scotland’s westerly isles in the North Atlantic, its social history and geology, both of which have been a persistent interest to me since childhood.

Over the past year I have been re-examining not only the work made for these projects but also how I have visualised my subjects and the practical aspects of my drawing practice. This has been a long time coming, and I have realised just how important this re-examination is to the fundamental ‘health’ of my practice (and, of course, to me on a personal level). My stepping away from the OCA and teaching in general offers such an important opportunity to set this in motion, an opportunity I can no longer ignore.

This is my plan for not only the next year but also for the foreseeable future, but while rejuvenating my practice, I will continue seeking as well as remaining open-eared to fortunes tapping at my studio door.

ED: Oh my goodness, what a wonderful and inspiring idea! I hope it bears incredible and surprising fruit! I wish you all the best for the future, Simon, and I hope to see a few exhibition invitations in my inbox as you progress. Do you have any last words of advice for students new to the degree course? What should an artist hold in mind?

SM: My advice to students (and a constant reminder to myself) is simple but probably not very groundbreaking: keep an open mind to experience, inspiration, and experimentation; keep your eyes open; and maintain a sense of surprise and wonderment in everything you do.

ED: Perfect.