Building an Art Career (Louise’s story) [122]

Apple podcast

This week, we’re discussing Louise’s story with Alice leading the conversation. We track back through Louise’s life and discuss the touch points – three key moments when things shifted for her.  These include moving back from New York to Yorkshire, meeting Alice and following her instincts, and finding a life coach who helped her move past her limiting beliefs. 

We also discuss Louise’s journey into teaching, which came about in a slightly unusual way when the idea for a course came to her almost fully formed. That course is now in its fourth year and we discuss the philosophy behind the life-changing concept that simply following what you love is all you ever need to do.

Mentioned:

Louise’s free Find Your Joy taster course: https://www.louisefletchercourses.com/wait-list-FYJ-2021

Alice’s Connected Artist Club is open now (but closing tomorrow!)  https://soulrocketstudio.com/connected-open

Find out more about Georgina Noel https://www.georginanoel.com/

BBC: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Franny Moyle HERE

If you have a question you’d like us to discuss, click here to send it to us

If you are enjoying the podcast this is an easy and inexpensive way to help support it and ensure it continues. The demands of making it each week can be challenging. Your support is allowing us to hire some editing help. If you’d like to help out with a one-time or a monthly donation, you can “buy us a coffee” us at Ko-fi.com

Contribute to the podcast here:

Follow Alice on Instagram @alicesheridanstudio
or Louise @louisefletcher_art

Credits
“Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Building an Art Career (Alice’s story) [121]

Apple podcast

Have you ever wondered how we came to be doing what we’re doing? If so, the next two episodes are for you. This week, we’re diving into Alice’s story, in a conversation led by Louise. You’ll learn all about Alice’s journey from graphic design to a full-time career as an artist, and what exactly that entails.

We travel through Alice’s past, talk about the role depression played in making her an artist, and explore the idea of intentionality … how much of what we do is clearly envisaged from the outset versus that which is arrived a gradually and in incremental steps.

Finally, we discuss Connected Artist Club, the online membership group that Alice built from fledgling idea into thriving community. If you have ever wondered about how to build a successful art career, this episode is for you.

Mentioned:

Alice’s Connected Artist Club will be opening in May 2021

You can find out more about it by clicking HERE to add your name:
 https://soulrocketstudio.com/connected-interest

This is a special list, and different from my main website

If you have a question you’d like us to discuss, click here to send it to us

If you are enjoying the podcast this is an easy and inexpensive way to help support it and ensure it continues. The demands of making it each week can be challenging. Your support is allowing us to hire some editing help. If you’d like to help out with a one-time or a monthly donation, you can “buy us a coffee” us at Ko-fi.com

Contribute to the podcast here:

Follow Alice on Instagram @alicesheridanstudio
or Louise @louisefletcher_art

Credits
“Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Being Brave with Colour

If there’s one thing in modern art making which drives me crazy, it’s the notion that artists should keep to a fixed colour palette in order to be recognisable or consistent. Historically the colours in paintings may have been limited by available pigments, or relative cost but these days we have so much available and exploring colour within art is one of the joys of painting for me.

Of course we all have colours we are naturally attracted to (or vice versa) and I am always drawn to those soft and deep murky blues but the thing with colour is that it’s always about the combination… what it sits next to, the pairings and harmony you can create. Sometimes how a bit of discord can make a painting sing in unexpected ways.

So, as I continue with this series of work one of the things I want to do is to see how I can shake up my natural habit by introducing new colour. This creates a different problem for me to confront. But each painting is a solution to a unique situation so this is one of the ways I like to shake things up.

In this video you can see my thoughts in the studio. If you want to try this for yourself I suggest you choose one area of the colour wheel to keep vibrant. Here I’m using a cadmium red mixed with a cool yellow (hansa or lemon yellow) to make this bright light red. Adding white makes it more coral. I’m avoiding using magenta in this palette.

Let me know in the comments below if you have a colour palette you like to stick with.

If you would like to see how these paintings continue to change you can follow me on Instagram here: @alicesheridanstudio

Or join my mailing list:

Launching a Collection of Paintings [120]

Apple podcast

Recently, we both launched a series of paintings via our websites, and in this episode, we discuss the experience and what we learned. For both of us, this was a relatively new experience – Alice usually launches her new works at in-person events and Louise has traditionally added paintings to her website on an ad-hoc basis, rather than as a series. Both our launches went well, and we hope our experiences can help you plan something similar.

You can see Alice’s virtual event from the Covid summer of 2020 here:
Artists at Home virtual open studio 2020

We cover the benefits of building (and communicating regularly with) a mailing list; the importance of storytelling in sales, and the value of thoughtful presentation. We also discuss the downsides of selling this way, including the inevitable fear of failing in public, and the amount of time required for emailing buyers, packaging, and arranging shipping. As an extra bonus, we introduce the word “wally” and “sodding” to listeners outside the UK (you’re welcome). 

Mentioned:

Louise’s private view page: https://www.louisefletcherart.com/private-view

Alice’s new ‘Wild Swimming’ collection 2021 https://alicesheridan.com/wildswimming/

If you have a question you’d like us to discuss, click here to send it to us

If you are enjoying the podcast this is an easy and inexpensive way to help support it and ensure it continues. The demands of making it each week can be challenging. Your support is allowing us to hire some editing help. If you’d like to help out with a one-time or a monthly donation, you can “buy us a coffee” us at Ko-fi.com

Contribute to the podcast here:

Follow Alice on Instagram @alicesheridanstudio
or Louise @louisefletcher_art

Credits
“Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Managing Expectations [119]

Apple podcast

This week we’re celebrating our one millionth podcast download, something neither of us imagined when we started. And it made us think about expectations … where do they come from? What effect do they have? And how can we learn to manage them? During the course of the discussion, we unpick the difference between intentions and expectations and discuss whether Shakespeare had it right when he declared that “expectation is the root of all heartache.”

This episode starts with a rather long discussion about technical challenges, which is so on the money – because none of us expect that, when we decide to become an artist, we will spend large amounts of our time solving technology problems. But, it turns out to be a large part of the life of a working artist (IF you want to have control over this element of your career). As always, that gap (between what we expect and what is reality) can really catch us out.

Perhaps the answer is to have no expectations, but neither of us can claim to have attained that level of enlightenment just yet. But maybe being aware of the trap, and catching ourselves when we fall into it, is all we need to do.

Mentioned:

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Pleasures-Between-Covers-Book/dp/147461390X/

Alice’s Connected Artist Club: https://alicesheridanstudio.mykajabi.com/connected-interest

If you have a question you’d like us to discuss, click here to send it to us

If you are enjoying the podcast this is an easy and inexpensive way to help support it and ensure it continues. The demands of making it each week can be challenging. Your support is allowing us to hire some editing help. If you’d like to help out with a one-time or a monthly donation, you can “buy us a coffee” us at Ko-fi.com

Contribute to the podcast here:

Follow Alice on Instagram @alicesheridanstudio
or Louise @louisefletcher_art

Credits
“Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License