In this episode, Peter visited the beautiful Yorkshire Dales National Park, the home of Rosemary & Co Artists’ brushes, to interview Rosemary herself. 

Peter and Rosemary discuss exactly how she makes her famous brushes, the tools and materials involved in brush making and why so many artists around the globe consider her paint brushes the best in the world.

Painter or not, for anyone interested in Art, this podcast is not to be missed!

This week’s takeaway… If you want to find out more about Rosemary & Co and their magnificent, handmade Artists’ brushes, visit https://www.rosemaryandco.com 

Running your own business is a risky business, with 20% of businesses failing in their first year and a shocking 60% failing within the first three. But making decisions and taking risks is all part of running any business, including the creative business of being an Artist. The calculation of risk is an essential skill which all artists and makers need to hone in order to forge ahead in their career. 

In this episode, Peter and Tom share examples of creative and business orientated risks that they have taken and discuss why and how taking risks can be crucial in helping you to maintain momentum in your business.  They also openly share examples of when taking risks has not worked out, why this may be and how they have used these situations to develop, learn and move forward. 

Both Tom and Peter agree that the willingness to experiment with new ideas has been the key to their business growth. They bring the episode to a conclusion by talking about less quantifiable results which may emerge from taking risks; just because something might feel like a failure at the time, you never know what may come of it in the future…

This week's takeaway... risk taking is a part of running any business and artists and makers are not alone. It is often the risk takers of the world that forge ahead, attract attention and lead the way. Just remember that not all risks are good ones and, when you fail, learn from it; pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move forward. 

In this episode, Peter and Tom give over the podcast to you, the listener. They answer three listener's questions about:
1) Framing work for an Art Fair
2) How to get re-started after a break away from the studio, and 
3) What to do when a customer does not pay!

To submit your question to Peter and Tom, visit the website at www.askanartistpodcast.com

In this episode, Tom and Peter venture outside (well, metaphorically at least) as they are talking all about painting the great outdoors, en plein-air, with the renowned British painter, Haidee-Jo Summers.

Haidee-Jo Summers is famed for her paintings full of light, colour and all painted from life. As well as being an author of the internationally popular book Vibrant Oils, Haidee-Jo is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of Marine Artists, is an editorial consultant for The Artist Magazine and has won multiple awards and prizes for her paintings. 

In this episode, Haidee-Jo talks about her background, her training, how she began painting with oils and en plein-air. She discusses what she believes it is that makes painting outside so special, how to go about it and talks about her brand-new book, Plein Air Painting with Oils.  

In this episode, Peter and Tom talk about the challenges they have both faced over the past two years, due to the pandemic and how they have changed their artistic businesses and continue to transition to this “new-normal” way of working.

Back in the spring of 2020, both Peter and Tom were hit hard when Covid hit the UK, losing a large proportion of their income in a very short space of time. With this uncertainty and lack of security, their creativity fell completely flat! 

They move on to reflecting on how, once the initial “damage control” period was over, and the initial shock subsided, it was a change of mindset which helped them to decide on what was most important to them and how they could continue working as an Artist.

This week’s takeaway…challenges or problems will inevitably come  your way as an Artist, but it’s how you face them that matters; thinking creatively, looking at a problem in a different way, being flexible, identifying new ways of working which can be welcome additional, income streams, will all help your business to become stronger and more resilient in the long run. 

In this first episode of Season 3, Peter introduces his new co-host, Tom Shepherd.
Tom has been a previous guest on the podcast and after a re-introduction to Tom and his work, in this episode, he and Peter discuss what they think it means to be a “working artist”.
Both Tom and Peter are proud to call themselves working artists and discuss some of the dilemmas which can occur – such as decisions when creativity and financial matters seem to pull you in different directions.
Tom concludes by introducing some of the things the pair will be discussing during the rest of this season – transitioning out of covid, risk taking, more listeners’ questions, demystifying mailing lists, social media and… the slightly controversial, but very interesting, topic of NFT’s!

After nearly 2 years and over 100 episodes of Ask an Artist Laura is leaving to concentrate on other aspects of her work: Making Art, teaching and making videos.  Ask an artist will continue with Peter and a new co-host in the new year, along with a new sound engineer - since the talents of Mr B will be required elsewhere.

in our listener questions today Peter and Laura give their view  on testing new materials, confidence and self doubt and on self publishing a book of your work

In this episode of Ask an Artist Laura and Peter are talking to Tom Knowles Jackson: Potter, Gallerist, Director of 'The Clay Loft' an open access clay studio maker-space and business consultant. Tom excels at all of these things and this interview is full of fascinating insights 

We all try to do our best, but sometimes things go wrong.  How you deal with mistakes and problems is just as important as the work you produce.  Laura and Peter have both had their share of things to deal with: work that has not gone to plan, or deliveries that have gone astray.  Whether the issue is artistic or business you still have to deal with it and doing that well can turn a problem into a benefit