Ask An Artist – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, Peter and Tom welcome back fellow Artist, Tom Croft.

Tom is a portrait painter who has appeared on Sky Portrait Artist of the year, as well as other TV art shows. He became more widely-known during the pandemic, for his work organising the Portraits for NHS Heroes project. Since gaining this recognition, Tom has been asked to be on the judging panel of several major art competitions and in this episode, Peter and Tom interview him about what it's like to be on both sides of the competition - to judge and to be judged.

This Podcast is sponsored by Rosemary & Co Brushes,  Search Press publishers and Jackson’s Art Supplies.

For more information about our sponsors, please visit:

Rosemary & Co Brushes: www.rosemaryandco.com
Search Press publishers: www.searchpress.com
Jackson’s Art supplies: www.jacksonsart.com

In this episode, Peter and Tom answer some of your questions. Firstly there's a question about the use of AI, followed by a question about varnishing and finally, what judges are looking for in art competitions.

If you have a question you’d like to put to us and would be happy for us answer it here on the podcast please send it to us via our website here or alternatively you can send it to us via Instagram.

This Podcast is sponsored by Rosemary & Co Brushes,  Search Press publishers and Jackson’s Art Supplies.

For more information about our sponsors, please visit:

Rosemary & Co Brushes: www.rosemaryandco.com
Search Press publishers: www.searchpress.com
Jackson’s Art supplies: www.jacksonsart.com

In this episode Tom and Peter interview sculptor, teacher and now, exhibition curator, James Ort about his latest project; Inspired by Knepp.

In the first half, James summarises his journey to becoming an Artist and what led him, as a wildlife Artist, to want to do more to help nature. He talks about how he came to find out about the Knepp Estate, their rewilding project and the germination of his idea
to use art to help spread awareness.

In the second half, James talks in more detail about what Inspired by Knepp has become; his role as project manager / curator, the timeline of the project, the skills he has needed or had to develop to organise such a project and advise for any Artists looking to embark on something similar.

Find out more here: https://knepp.co.uk/art
Watch a short film about it here.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Rosemary & Co Brushes, Jackson’s Art Supplies and Search Press Publishers.

For more information about our sponsors, please visit:

Rosemary & Co Brushes: www.rosemaryandco.com
Jackson’s Art supplies: www.jacksonsart.com
Search Press: www.searchpress.com

Time to cast the cat in among the pigeons! Laura and Peter are joined in this debate by Silversmith James Dougal and 'the Talented Mr B. (Ben Boswell) to talk about craft and art as descriptions of their work and of the way they identify themselves.
Asking 100 people what the difference is between art and craft, or what the respective values of art and craft are and you will get 100 different answers.  After recording this and listening to our four interpretations I think we all agree that a fundamental level you need both to create beautiful things and maybe the line is so blurry that we are all better off calling ourselves 'artist/craftspeople' - a more 'maker-fluid' description!

Laura and Peter have another rummage in the post bag in this episode to answer some of the listener questions we have received.  Today we have questions on working for friends, dealing with 'site specific' artworks and wether it is a good idea to work in multiple media.

In this episode of Ask an Artist Peter and Laura discuss 'Branding' - they are not trying to get you to burn symbols into your flesh, but is it a good idea to develop a brand identity?  On balance they believe it is, a consistent look and feel to your communications and interactions with your customers helps them to recognise you right from the start.

In today's episode Laura and Peter interview James Dougall whose journey into being a silversmith had a few fascinating twists and turns.  Now a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths James came to the business late after working in several other fields.  His story will hopefully give hope to many 'second career' artists!

An artist is constantly judged, it is inevitable, a part of the very nature of what they do.  However it would be wrong to assume that the judgement is only about the work that the artist produces.  Today, Peter and Laura discuss the importance of the artist's reputation: how it develops, how to look after it and how not to lose it!

Over the last months we have had some really good questions from listeners and we are going to try out this slightly different format for this episode.  Here are Laura and Peter's thoughts on 3 questions, looking at work/life balance, selling work for the first time and troublesome students!

If you have a question that you would like to submit to us then please visit www.askanartistpodcast.com 

As an artist it is very likely that, from time to time, you will be asked to do things for charity.  It could be something that you do anyway, that generates funds for a charity you wish to support, or it could be an approach from a charity asking you to do something specific.  Whatever the scenario if you are going to do work like this it needs to be taken just as seriously as for any other client.  Both Peter and Laura have done things for charity - and for charitable reasons, in this episode they talk about their attitude to this kind of work.