Ask An Artist

For a couple of months the Ask an Artist Team are taking a break from recording to concentrate on other things that need to be done: On-line teaching and book writing both have deadlines that cannot be put off!  While we are away  we have selected some episodes from our archive, if you have already listened to them in the past then maybe they deserve a second outing.  If these are new to you then...

For a couple of months the Ask an Artist Team are taking a break from recording to concentrate on other things that need to be done: On-line teaching and book writing both have deadlines that cannot be put off!  While we are away  we have selected some episodes from our archive, if you have already listened to them in the past then maybe they deserve a second outing.  If these are new to you then...

For a couple of months the Ask an Artist Team are taking a break from recording to concentrate on other things that need to be done: On-line teaching and book writing both have deadlines that cannot be put off!  While we are away  we have selected some episodes from our archive, if you have already listened to them in the past then maybe they deserve a second outing.  If these are new to you then...

For a couple of months the Ask an Artist Team are taking a break from recording to concentrate on other things that need to be done: On-line teaching and book writing both have deadlines that cannot be put off!  While we are away  we have selected some episodes from our archive, if you have already listened to them in the past then maybe they deserve a second outing.  If these are new to you then...

For a couple of months the Ask an Artist Team are taking a break from recording to concentrate on other things that need to be done: On-line teaching and book writing both have deadlines that cannot be put off!  While we are away  we have selected some episodes from our archive, if you have already listened to them in the past then maybe they deserve a second outing.  If these are new to you then...

In another of their popular Listener Questions episodes Peter and Laura discuss how to wrap paintings and works on paper to send them to customers, wether you should, if asked, trim your work to have a different amount of border and if you should take up art as a second career?

In this episode Laura and peter talk about the tricky subject of signing your work.  Their different genres have different conventions and getting it right so that you fulfil the conventions and your own aesthetic ideas and the need to let your public know that this is your work.  There's more to this than one might have imagined!

After a year of cancelled shows, fairs and other events it would seem that the people (craetive ones) that have fared best are those that have come up with their own solutions to their lack of places to sell their work.  In this episode Laura talks to Peter about the online show he had late last year and they discuss some of the other On-line experiences that they have had.

If you make your living as an artist then having a style that people recognise can help in several ways, it's easier to deal with galleries if they know what to expect, your customer base too likes to recognise your work amongst others and if you are building a 'brand' then your identity is central to that.  However, some people just cannot help themselves from working in different...

In this episode Peter and Laura discuss some of the issues that arise from putting a title on the masterpiece you have just created.  Is it necessary, will it make a difference to whether it will sell, or what people will think of it.  It's not always easy to find the title that is going to fit best with the piece, so sit back and hear what Laura and Peter do

Strange as it may seem when Laura and Peter are not recording this podcast they are not sat in their studios listening over and over to previous episodes!  However they both like to listen to podcasts and in this episode they chat about which ones they favour.

This episode of Ask an Artist is another opportunity for listeners to pose questions to Perter and Laura.  Today the questions cover some of the tricky things that you need to consider if you are a printmaker taking on a commission, some of the things that you should consider when you are buying an easel and how to go about approaching magazines with ideas for articles.  If you have a question tha...

Becoming a successful artist is not a sprint, it's a marathon.  Laura and Peter chat in this episode about the various things that you need a bit of stamina for is for want to make it as an artist.

In this episode Laura and Peter are delighted to welcome Dr Robert Travers whose gallery in Holland Park in London is currently hosting - Online - a Ben Nicholson exhibition.   However, the main topic of conversation is the 'Ruth Borchard Collection' a stellar collection of 20th century self portraits, 100 paintings collected between 1958 and 1971.   The collection has inspired a self po...

Making a podcast about the business of being an artist we did not imagine having to make episodes about global pandemics, but here we are, 10 months on - How has the pandemic affected us and how have we steered our businesses through these difficult times?

This is the second part of Peter and Laura's discussion with Jurgita Galbraith whose Gallery: Birchtree Gallery, in Dundas Street Edinburgh specialises in work on paper alongside applied craft.  This podcast focusses on the relationship between the gallery and the artist during and after an exhibition. Laura has exhibited several times at Birchtree Gallery and the relationship between her and...

In this episode Laura and Peter are talking to Jurgita Galbraith who has a gallery in Dundas Street in Edinburgh. There was so much good material in the interview that we have split this into two episodes, in this first part the discussion is about building a relationship with a gallery, what the gallerist may expect from an artist  and a few things that an artist really should avoid in their deal...

In this episode of Ask an Artist Peter and Laura talk about some of the things that they feel thankful for, and what their New Year's resolutions are. 

No real advice this week, other than that you should take the day off! Please note we recorded this episode at a time when both the Keegans and the Boswells had expected to be getting together with select members of their respective families which was reflected in what we said.  As we upload this the situation is rather different, we are in Tier 4 which is pretty well a full lock-down and our Chri...

Have you ever struggled to find inspiration?  Have you had anxiety trying to figure out what kind of printing press to buy?  Have you wandered if the degree you worked so hard to get will be respected (or if you should have gone to art school rather than making your own way into art)? Peter and Laura answer three very different questions, posed by listeners, if you have a question then let us know...

In this second part of our interview with potter Keith Brymer Jones Laura and Peter are focussing more on Keith's role as a judge on Channel Four's 'Great Pottery Throwdown' and also on his involvement in developing a new type of qualification for crafts at Schools level

In this episode of Ask an Artist Laura and Peter talk to Keith Brymer Jones.  Keith is probably best known as a judge on The Channel Four programme on TV: The Great Pottery Throwdown, but that will have to wait for next week.  This week the discussion is about how Keith became a potter, how, as a potter he worked for companies like Heals, Habitat and Laura Ashley and how he ended up as the Directo...

Fitting in all the stuff you need to do as an artist is something you might not think about when you are starting out.  Initially you just want to 'do art!' and who wouldn't.  However being organised when the administration of your career as an artist begins to overwhelm your creativity may well maintain that all important studio time.  Peter and Laura talk this week about how they...

In this epoisod of Ask an Artist Laura and Peter have the great pleasure of interviewing Sarah James.  Sarah is the driving force behind Bovey Tracey Craft Festival and various other festivals that have developed using the same format: Bath, Cheltenham Cardiff and others.  Covid-19 has made Sarah look for other ways to support the craft world that she is so passionate about and so, like others she...

If you hope to make a living as an artist, even if you hope only to supplement your income, then it is a good idea to plan how you are going to market yourself by creating - oddly enough - a marketing plan!  In these peculiar times with Covid-19 raging through our society there is still a need to plan, it's just different stuff we need to plan.  Pater and Laura talk in this episode about how...