Episode 27: Retiring as an Artist, Marketing Your Work & Finding Time to Create

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Karen, Jacq and Jennifer, exploring the value we place on our artwork, the challenges of balancing creativity with financial necessity, and how to begin a creative practice later in life. Karen is a Danish artist who has spent years generously giving her artwork away to friends and family. But after a friend negotiated a substantial discount on eight of her original watercolours, she's questioning whet...

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three creative dilemmas from Viv, Debbie and Sophie, exploring how to recover your creative motivation after an exhibition, how to prepare for launching an art business, and how to simplify a multi-creative career when you're feeling overwhelmed and pulled in too many directions. Viv has recently finished preparing work for an exhibition and feels completely depleted. With two more exhibitions approaching, she's struggling to find the motiva...

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Suzanne, Ella and Jane, exploring how to rebuild creative confidence after it has been badly damaged, why observational drawing can feel so mentally exhausting, and how to move from constantly taking courses to developing a creative practice of your own. My Loving Lately this week is Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth. I really enjoyed this one. Hepworth is brilliant at combining darker psychological suspense...

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Meg, Kathy and Taura, exploring how to grow a creative business when time is limited, how to make peace with returning to art later in life, and what happens when you're trying to find your own creative language rather than simply follow someone else's process. My Loving Lately this week is The Golden Hours by Louisa Young, the new continuation of The Cazalet Chronicles, written by Elizabeth Jane Howar...

A quick note before we start: I accidentally recorded this week’s episode without my usual microphone, so the sound is slightly more echoey than normal. Everything is clear, though, and I decided it was better to share the episode than record the whole thing again! In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Hope, Kathy and Gina, exploring privacy and openness online, the ethics of using other people’s images as artistic reference, and whether i...