Dr. Ursula Betka was one of my favourite lecturers and tutors during my 6 years at Melbourne University studying art history in the 1990’s.  Her area of specialisation, in which she has a Ph.D,  focused on Medieval and Renaissance sacred images.

On 3rd December, Ursula’s beautiful new book, published by Hardie Grant, is coming out and I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy.  Titled “Techniques of Painting and Gilding in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Italy.  Egg Tempera and Gold Leaf on Wood Panel”, this sumptuously illustrated, hard back book is a detailed technical manual on the time-honoured painting tradition of egg tempera, used historically for sacred images of the Madonna and Child.

Ursula works in a range of historical materials and methods such as egg tempera painting and gilding on wood, parchment and glass, exploring ways in which these traditions and techniques might convey profound beauty and resonate meaning today. Ursula integrates her practice with the teaching and writing of art history by examining the function and context of sacred art objects and the ways in which artistic creation expresses the yearnings of the soul.

The enduring symbolic values associated with pigments and colours, exotic decorative fabrics and various landscape and architectural settings is also explored.

Ursula’s book-launch coincides with an exhibition of works featured in the book. See the links below for details and where to buy Ursula's book.

Links for this episode:

See the full blog post for this episode

Buy Ursula’s book- Australia Independent bookshop

Buy Ursula’s book- Amazon

See Ursula’s exhibition Nov 18-Dec 6 2024

Artist Demonstration workshops

Ursula’s Instagram

Ursula does not have a website, feel free to email her at [email protected]  or contact her on Instagram

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Welcome to season 13!  I’ve started a new season as I have recently started a new chapter of my life and career as an artist.  Three months ago, I started my Master of visual at Federation University, which is here in my hometown of Ballarat.  So I thought it was about to time to check in and let you know what I’ve been up to and how it’s been going. 

LINKS:

This podcast is also a video! If you’d like to see the

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Hi friends and welcome to episode 117.  It’s been a wild month for me as I’ve had my second solo exhibition, ‘An Ornamental Education’ running here at the art gallery of Ballarat.  It’s been an incredible ride having my first exhibition at a public art gallery and I wanted to make sure that I shared it with you before it ends on 14thApril.

I’ve created a full guided tour for you on my YouTube channel. I really hope you head on over there to check it out, because the audio for this episode makes a whole lot more sense when you can see the artwork.  But nevertheless, I know that many of you prefer to listen rather than look while painting in the studio, so I wanted to make it available to you here on the podcast as well.  I’ll be sure to leave the link to the video in the show notes so you can check that out too.

 This episode also includes an absolutely brilliant address given by my dear friend and fellow artist, Dr Louisann King.  at the opening celebration held at the gallery on 8th March, which also happened to be International Women’s Day.  It was so incredibly eloquent and brought so much depth and understanding about this body of work, that I really wanted to include it in full. 

I also just wanted to mention, that in May and June I’m teaching my first in-person  2 day painting workshops since before Covid. I’m running them with the beautiful crew at Artable in May and June.  The workshop on the Gold Coast in June has sold out, which is wonderful.  But there are still a few spots available at my Melbourne workshop on 4th and 5th of May.  So if you’d like to learn how to paint in my signature bright, floral abstract style, be sure to click on the links below.

View the Youtube video for this episode: https://www.susannethercote.com/youtube-1/inside-my-solo-exhibition

View the Melbourne 2 day painting workshop details: https://artable.com.au/workshops/adults/soulful-abstract-florals-in-acrylics-2-days-melbourne-may-2024

All art and my limited edition jigsaw puzzle are available at https://www.susannethercote.com/

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It’s been a while between episodes, so in this chat I’m filling you in on some rather big changes that have been happening in my art practice and, well, my whole life as a consequence.

 As I’ve been working on my latest solo exhibition ‘An Ornamental Education’ (Art Gallery of Ballarat 7th-14thMarch 2024), I’ve been working intimately with historical sources for the first time, and it has lit a big fire in me for this method of making research-based artwork.  

 It gradually became clear to me, with my art history background, that what I had created already would be a great foundation for a MA research project.  This raised the question for me- is returning to post graduate research something that is calling to me after 25 years away from academia?  

 As it turns out, there were so many yeses that have presented themselves to this question overt the past 6 months, that this is indeed what will be starting in about 3 month’s time.  Join me for this cozy studio chat as I walk you through how this latest evolution in my art career has transpired and why I have made this choice to return to life as a post-graduate student.

 And if you’re a visual person like me and would like to see me in the studio alongside some lovely footage of me painting for my latest exhibition, then be sure to pop on over 

Links:

View the full YouTube video of this episode here: https://youtu.be/umXrl1yXqSI

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Welcome to episode 115 of the Studio insider art podcast.  Today’s episode is once again an audio extract from my latest YouTube video.  If you’d like to check out the visual to everything, I’m talking about then I highly recommend that you pop on over to the YouTube video and check it out.

In this episode I’m taking you along with me as I do some historical research at the State Library of Victoria that relates to my latest exhibition.  I’m researching an early Victorian female Botanical artist and writer called Louisa Anne Meredith, who migrated from England to Tasmania in the 1830’s.  Her writing and illustration is influencing the artwork I am creating for my upcoming 2024 exhibition ‘The Garden Within’ and I wanted to take the opportunity to view some of these very old books of hers in person.

I’ll walk you through all the gorgeous old books I view in the State Library Heritage reading room, including some that are enormous and incredibly beautifully illustrated! And I’ll also share with you a magical discovery I made while I was there that was so inspiring to me.

Then I take you back into the studio and show you a sample of the work I’ve been making that directly relates to Louisa-Anne Meredith and the other female botanical artists of the colonial era.

I really hope you enjoy this inside look at how I go about doing historical research to inspire my art and how this can be a rich and rewarding part of the creative process.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

Links:

View the full YouTube video of this episode here: https://youtu.be/wrH3KUTA19E

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Finishing difficult paintings.  I think we all have one (or two or three) faced against a wall or at the back of a cupboard, those difficult paintings that we just can’t seem to face completing. I know that you know what I’m talking about.

Well, I have some artistic medicine for you today.  In this month’s episode, I’m walking you through 20 tips that I use in my own art practice to help me finish difficult paintings. All tips are super practical and down to earth and I hope will really help you find your flow with completing those tricky artworks.

If you'd like to see me working on my own difficult painting as I cat through these points, then be sure to check out the Youtube video: https://youtu.be/gWur-oMjljo

And if you'd like to download a PDF of the 20 tips I walk you through, sign up to receive them here: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5e7e91c96a87150027f6e075

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

Links:

Youtube video: https://youtu.be/gWur-oMjljo

https://www.susannethercotestudio.com/free-resources

direct link to 20 tips pdf: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5e7e91c96a87150027f6e075

https://susannethercotestudio.com/online-classes  

https://www.youtube.com/@susan.nethercote/videos 

Susan Nethercote:

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In today’s podcast episode once again sharing with you the audio component from my latest vlog over on YouTube that was released a few days ago. It’s a bit of a mixed bag of topics including how I grow my own botanical art samples and how I photograph them later in the studio for future reference.

The main topic of today’s conversation is a big ‘ol life update. If you’ve noticed that I’ve been around much less often in 2023 and not very present on social media and are curious as to why this is the case, then you might just want to listen in, especially around 7 minutes in or so when I tell you what’s been going on for me lately.

I’ve been learning some new video editing software skills lately and feel enormously proud of the vlog from which this podcast is taken. It shares some beautiful moments I’ve had in my garden over the past couple of months as I’ve been navigating some big shifts in my life.

So I really hope you pop on over and check the accompanying video to this episode over on YouTube. It’s a particularly visual episode and I want you to get the full vision of everything I am sharing.

Links:

YouTube video: https://youtu.be/4NF6roY72NM

Susan Nethercote:

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It’s just me on the podcast today and I’m doing something a little different. I’m undertaking my Painting as a Practice challenge this month and I thought it would be fun to talk you through all the fantastic things that I’ve learned in the first week of my practice month about painting on timber panels and raw linen.

Bringing you inside my studio practice in a more practical sense has been something I’ve wanted to do for ages, so in order to make this chat as rich as possible, I’ve made a Youtube video about it too.  So if you would like to see the video that accompanies this podcast, but sure to look me up on youtube under Susan Nethercote and check out the latest video I’ve posted there.

I also wanted to let you know that in celebration of the February challenge I run each year, all my e-courses are 20% off until the 1st of March 2023. So if you’ve had your eye on one of them, simply use the code FEB23 at the checkout to claim your discount.

Links:

https://susannethercotestudio.com/online-classes

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Susan Nethercote:

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For today’s episode, Steph and I got together at the Old Butcher’s shop gallery here in Ballarat where my exhibition Autumnal Dreamscapes is currently happening. We recorded our very first live episode in front of what was meant to be a live audience.  As it turned out, the only people that turned up were Steph, myself, the gallery owner Julie and my mate Amie who helps me in the studio sometimes!  So as you can imagine, I kind of felt like crawling under a rock and hiding after.

But as I’ve learned many times over in this art game, the very moment you feel like you’ve failed and want to crawl under that rock is the very moment you need to own what has happened and share what has happened so you can feel less crap about it.  So if you ever thought that because I have this podcast and lots of Instagram followers I’m brimming with confidence and always succeeding, then I want you to know that sometimes I fail and feel like a complete loser!

I’m working really hard to keep this moment in perspective and remember all the other wonderful things that have come about as a result of this exhibition.  I’ve had so many lovely people come to visit during the exhibition and have had really strong sales, which has absolutely blown me away. So I guess, it all evens up in the wash.  And the conversation that I had with Steph about my journey in creating work for my first solo show is a really good one and I hope you enjoy it.

Links:

e-courses black Friday page link: https://www.susannethercotestudio.com/black-friday

Susan Nethercote:

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Steph Wallace

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