37: Two Hats, One Vision with Sharon Harvey
An Art To It
Artist, Gallery Owner, Creative Force This week, I’m joined by Sharon Harvey: a painter, gallery owner, and passionate creative, to explore what it really takes to run a commercial gallery while maintaining an active artistic practice. Sharon shares her winding journey from a successful corporate career into the art world, what led her to study fine art in her 40s, and how a chance conversation changed everything. Now the founder of Sanctuary Gallery in Gloucestershire, she offers a unique dual perspective on gallery-artist relationships, creative confidence, and the realities of selling art...
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36: Carving out a Creative Life (helped by proper coffee!) with Jill Hudson
An Art To It
This week, I’m joined by painter, and Byre Gallery regular, Jill Hudson, whose creative life has been shaped by travel, resilience, and an enduring love of the sea. Jill shares her journey from studying at Falmouth art school to achieving an enviable life/work balance, and how experiences like teaching in Uganda and studying in Venice helped shape both her perspective and her practice. We chat about the realities of running a professional art business - from the challenges of self-promotion and gallery relationships to the delicate balance between commercial work and creative freedom. Jill...
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35: A Life in Full Colour with Sara McKee
An Art To It
This week, I’m joined by the brilliant and irrepressible Sara McKee - art historian, copywriter, branding expert, and founder of Life Full Colour, https://www.lifefullcolour.com/ a vibrant gallery and cultural hub in North Wales. Sara shares the rich tapestry of her creative and corporate life: from being mentored by legendary art historians at Warwick University https://warwick.ac.uk/ and discovering a love of fresco in Venice, to carving out a second career in advertising and strategy. But it was her decision to turn passion into purpose that took centre stage: Sara explains how her plans...
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34. Balancing the Business of Art with Melody Reynolds
An Art To It
In this episode, I chat with London-based painter Melody Reynolds, whose luminous swimming pool and beach scenes have brought a welcome breeze to the gallery walls this summer. Melody reflects on studying at St. Martin’s in the 1990s, why she’s always felt like an outsider in the art world, and the ways her painting process balances instinct with experimentation. She talks about what it takes to stay bold in the studio, the realities of contacting galleries, and why even seasoned artists need mentoring. Topics include: Painting as a subconscious process—and learning to break your own...
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33. Finding Form with Alex O’Connor
An Art To It
In this episode, I chat with award-winning silversmith Alex O’Connor about the winding path that led her from sculpture to silver—and from the Isle of Wight to the far west of Cornwall and the rugged landscape of West Penwith. In a hugely engaging and very honest chat, Alex shares how her autistic thinking and aphantasia (inability to voluntarily visualise mental images) shape her highly tactile, refined work, and why she describes her creative process as an act of distillation. She discusses forging a new direction later in life, the evolving definition of success in a creative business,...
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32: Keeping it True with Siobhan Purdy
An Art To It
What does it mean to make art that’s truly yours—even when it doesn’t fit the mould and you have to face potential resistance in the market place? In this honest and uplifting episode, I chat with Cornish artist Siobhan Purdy, whose dreamlike, deeply personal paintings have earned her a cult following. From navigating childhood as a selective mute to building thriving artist communities in Cornwall, Siobhan shares how creativity became her lifeline. We explore: The origins of her distinctive, magical visual style How she channels childhood memories and neurodivergence into powerful...
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31: Owning Who You Are with Deborah Harwood
An Art To It
In episode 31 of An Art to It, ceramicist Deborah Harwood joins me from her beautiful studio on the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex. Deborah shares her remarkable creative journey: from growing up part of deeply artistic family, her late father, is the acclaimed playwright and screenwriter, Ronald Harwood, (The Dresser, Quartet, The Pianist) to working for over a decade as an agent representing some of the UK's most acclaimed writers, directors and set designers, and to then, in her 50s, finding her creative passion in porcelain. We talk about how creativity shaped her early years, and how...
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30: Brand New Friend with Elaine Dye
An Art To It
In this solo episode of An Art to It, I share my experiences of creating a brand identity for myself. Why am I doing that you might ask. Last year I realised that I really needed to set up a separate website as a home for the online courses I run, and for this podcast too. I wanted the Byre Gallery to concentrate on doing what it’s supposed to do, showcase our exhibitions and the beautiful work we feature in the gallery, and can be the home for everything else. As I talk a lot about the importance of branding in my course: An Insider’s Guide to Gallery Success I do quite a lot of reading...
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29: Glass Ceilings (and how to fire through them) with Caroline Reed
An Art To It
In Episode 29, I’m delighted to be chatting to Caroline Reed, a London-based glass artist working in the exquisite and lesser-known technique of pâte de verre. Caroline shares the extraordinary story of her transition from a career in science and leadership development to a deeply creative life as a glassmaker, her third career, and one she treats with both passion and professionalism. Caroline reflects on her journey into glass, from her early love of art and materials to the moment she found her medium in pâte de verre, drawn to its delicacy, tactility, and potential for layering and...
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28: A Cut Above with Claire Brewster
An Art To It
For many artists, despite having an idea of what you want to create, sometimes the work finds you. For Claire Brewster it was a love of paper, a passion for the freedom of birds… and some handy foam board and pins that sparked her creative practice. Twenty years on from her ‘eureka’ moment, her exquisitely detailed paper birds, hand-cut from vintage maps are in art private and public art collections, hotels and cruise ships all over the world. Our lively conversation spans Claire’s creative journey—from her early fascination with paper, through art college, experimentation and...
info_outlineA love of making - and of maps - has taken ceramic artist Loraine Rutt on an unusual but very successful creative journey. Loraine began her career as a cartographer at London’s Birkbeck College https://www.bbk.ac.uk/ but when digitalisation of maps meant that she would be using a computer rather than the more physical approach of a pencil and tracing paper, she decided to pursue her earlier dream of going to art college.
A degree in ceramics from London’s Central School for Art and Design (later Central St Martins https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins) began her creative career which now sees her specialising in ceramic maps and globes with her own art-lead practice and her pocket globes which she produces limited editions of via her Little Globe co.
In our chat Loraine shares her journey from her Kent and London childhood, through her cartography career and joy at finally attending art college and getting to ‘play with clay.’
Her work mapping our world in ceramic form has recently won Loraine recognition from the Royal Geographical Society where she is now a Fellow. You can read about her recent exhibition here:
The Royal Geographical Society
In our chat Loraine also shares her chat about her connection with a real life space man: Apollo 15 Astronaut Col Al Worden - her work in homage and some recordings of her talking to Al Worden about the view of Earth from space can be heard here:
http://www.lorainerutt.com/portal
Loraine also recently took part in an exhibition in Venice with the prestigious Homo Faber organisation - you can see the catalogue here:
https://2024.homofaber.com/ecatalogue
For all Loraine’s other work please visit her website: