54: From Marketing to Making with Katie Robbins
An Art To It
A passion for colour, flowers and making all came together for Katie Robbins as she said goodbye to a career in marketing and welcomed a new creative direction as a ceramicist. In a lively and very open chat Katie - known by many on Instagram with her memorable handle @ceramicmagpie - shares her journey from a career in marketing to becoming a full-time ceramicist, and how creativity was always present in her life - even before she could imagine it becoming her work. She talks about studying French and politics at university, working in marketing, keeping her creative levels topped up...
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53. The Fine Art of Balance with Lucy Burley
An Art To It
Ceramicists never really retire, but they are allowed to indulge in a sabbatical. In this episode of An Art to It, I chat to Lucy Burley, whose beautifully distinctive ceramic bottles and vessels have been a much-loved part of my gallery https://thebyregallery.co.uk/ for ten years. In our very lively chat Lucy reflects on her creative path, from a first life in London as a tri-lingual secretary and then working in television production to discovering painting classes, art school, and eventually clay. She talks about developing her now instantly recognisable style, inspired in part by Giorgio...
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52: Painting and Possibilities with Laura Menzies
An Art To It
Freedom of choice and taking up all opportunities are just two of the topics I chat about with visual artist Laura Menzies in episode 52 of An Art to It. From a multidisciplinary arts degree and early love of dance to developing a distinctive painting practice in Cornwall, Laura shares her creative business journey; and reveals how studying, teaching and later completing an MA in Fine Art helped her refine her artistic voice. We also discuss the reality of building a creative business: learning the business side on the job, approaching and working with galleries, and the inventive...
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51: Silver, Stories and Staying Power with Lucy Spink
An Art To It
Exhibiting - and wearing - a maker’s work for a decade is definitely something worth celebrating. This week I’m chatting with Cornish jeweller Lucy Spink, a Byre Gallery regular for ten years since I first discovered her work thanks to two clients who were wearing her jewellery; surely the best kind of introduction. Since then I’ve got a considerable collection of her work myself - as have many of the gallery’s clients. In our lovely chat we talk about how the jewellery world has shifted over the last decade, the eye-watering rise in metal prices, Lucy’s love of unusual stones, and...
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50: Where the Work Wants to Go - Meg Fatharly on Process, Play and Building a Creative Business
An Art To It
Word play and the serenity of printing are under discussion in this episode of An Art to It, when I’m joined by artist and maker Megan Fatharly. An exciting talent, Meg has won a deserved reputation - and fan base - for her witty and distinctive embossed metal work. In a lively and honest chat we talk about Meg’s relationship with place (Scottish beginnings, Cornwall now), her diagnosis of ADHD in her late twenties, and how art-making became both a way to process the world and a “capsule of process” she could return to when things felt too much. Meg shares the...
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49: Sticking to Your Guns: 20 years of Contemporary Jewellery with Victoria Sewart
An Art To It
Celebrating 20 years as a beacon of creative excellence in jewellery, I’m delighted to be joined this week by Vicky Sewart, founder of Victoria Sewart Contemporary Jewellery Gallery in Plymouth, Devon. In a lovely chat with Vicky we talk about what’s changed in the jewellery world, and why, with a very clear vision of what she wanted her gallery to be, she “stuck to her guns” through recessions and retail shifts. Vicky also shares how teaching has become a huge part of her creative life, the reality of navigating breast cancer just two years into opening the gallery, and...
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48: Memories and Making with Carolyn Tripp
An Art To It
In this episode of An Art to It, I’m joined by ceramic artist Carolyn Tripp for a very enterianting and thoughtful conversation about finding your voice, building confidence, and taking the long view in a creative career. Carolyn shares her journey from advertising to ceramics, how loss shaped a deeply personal body of work, and why success in the art world often comes slowly - through consistency, clarity, and community rather than quick wins. In this episode we talk about: Finding your true creative voice later in life How personal experience can become universal in your work...
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47: Clay, Trees and the Art of Listening to What Lifts You with Sonya Wilkins
An Art To It
In this episode, I’m joined by ceramic artist Sonya Wilkins, whose vessels are inspired by the natural world - particularly trees, woodland textures, and the quiet power of time spent outdoors. Sonya shares how creativity has been woven through her life since childhood, from early painting lessons with her father to discovering clay at school, and why ceramics became both a practice and a refuge. Sonya also talks candidly about her “two pulls”: a creative identity alongside an entrepreneurial streak, and how her earlier career in people development eventually found its way back...
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46: Art for Everyone with Liz Lidgett
An Art To It
2026 - and series five - kicks off with An Art to It’s first ever transatlantic episode: this week I’m joined by gallerist Liz Lidgett of Liz Lidgett Gallery + Design in Des Moines, Iowa. https://www.lizlidgett.com/ Liz shares how growing up with a free local museum - and a grandmother who bought her art lessons every Christmas - shaped her belief that art should be for everyone. After studying art history and working as an in-house curator for a major corporate collection, she left the corporate world after exactly one year to become a freelance art advisor before opening her own gallery...
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45: Christmas Special: Behind the Gallery Wall with Sharon Harvey and Sara McKee
An Art To It
Ever wanted to eavesdrop of gallery owners in conversation? Now is your chance . In this Christmas Special edition of An Art to It, I’m joined by two fellow gallerists: Sharon Harvey (Sanctuary Gallery, Gloucestershire, and landscape artist) and Sara McKee (Life Full Colour gallery and music venue, North Wales). Together we unwrap what 2025 has really been like for independent galleries: the tough months, the surprising highs, the “Dunkirk Spirit” of a Private View in a rainstorm and flood, and why layering income streams and experiences has become essential. We also answer questions...
info_outlineIn this week’s episode, I chat to visual artist Gabriella Buckingham, whose creative path has taken her from illustration, to product design, to online teaching, and finally to the richly expressive painting practice she runs today.
Gabriella reflects on her childhood desire to be an artist and how finally reaching her destination “was just what I wanted. So I'm very grateful.” And how her time spent in the business side of a greetings card business left her with invaluable knowledge of trends, sales analysis and creative stamina which she could ultimately apply to her own creative business.
“I really feel that to run art as a business, you've got to be an optimist. You've got to be able to pick yourself up when you fail.”
We discuss:
• Our shared Lithuanian heritage - and the mystery at the centre of Gabriella’s family history
• Growing up obsessed with the paintings in her family home - as well as colour and ballet
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Why she realised graphic design wasn’t for her as she cared far more about the painting than the type.
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The commercial years that gave her strong business foundations
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Life as a kitchen-table business owner on Not On The High Street, https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/ and the moment she realised success was costing her more than it gave back
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Creating and teaching her own online painting course, and why seven-month “live experiences” are as intense as they sound
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Entering work for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - and the electric moment she learned she’d been selected
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Brand inspiration, colour psychology, and why she thinks she’s a “Spring business with an Autumn edge” inspired by Fiona Humberstone @thebrand_stylist https://www.thebrand-stylist.com/
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Brands she loves: Boden https://www.boden.com/, Toast https://www.toa.st/, and Kemi Telford https://kemitelford.com/
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Success, according to Gabriella: “the life I have now… just with a little more space, more painting, and more galleries.”
You can enjoy Gabriella’s work at - https://www.gabriellabuckingham.com/ and on instagram @gabriellabuckingham