I wrap up series one with a 'best of' style look at some of the things that I have learnt in my podcast journey over the last few months. Listen to some of the best bits and reflect on how the experience of these successful artists can be helpful to all.

Series 2 will start in the Autumn of 2024, keep a look out for dates and details.

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Thom studied Fine Art at the University of Brighton, graduating in 2009. A lot of the time focusing on portraiture and drawing inspiration from 1980s pop culture (think Murder she Wrote, The Golden Girls, Dynasty). Thom I also explores landscapes and works predominantly in oil.

In March 2017, he was commissioned by ArtFund and the Jewish Museum London to create a large scale drawing which formed a crucial part of the Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait exhibition. He has created work for arts venues in the South East, London galleries and international clients, and in 2019, designed the Family Trail for Hastings Contemporary Gallery. 

Alongside writer John Murray, Thom co-created and co-curated Celebrate the Mountains, a monthly arts and creative writing newsletter sent straight to your email. You can sign up here.

His first solo show, Untitled (Miss. Ms. Other), was hosted by St Mary in the Castle's Crypt Gallery in April 2017, and in 2018 the exhibition, You are an Ocean and I am a Living Thing, was at the Poetry Society in Covent Garden, London in 2018. 

In 2021 Thom participated in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year having his portrait selected by celebrity sitter, actress Lydia West. 

In 2023 his solo exhibition 'Why I long to be a sex symbol' took place at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery. A collection of 12 brand new oil paintings it explores the liminal space between a celebrity's private and public personas captured in paparazzi photographs from the 1960s to the 2000s. 

@thomkofoed

https://www.thomkofoed.com

@

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 Ellie Kerr-Smiley is a UK-based portrait artist whose work focuses on the depiction of women and the reclamation of the gaze. Using images of women in her life, other working artists or images that are submitted to her, Ellie’s work aims to propel every-day women into the spotlight. Her work plays with the balance between traditional portraiture and abstraction, creating portraits that tell a story – or perhaps conceal one. Ellie has come from a non-traditional artist’sbackground, having had no formal arts education or training, her work is spontaneous and unplanned, having spilled out of her after many years of working in offices. In late 2020, she picked up her paints again after almost ten years of sitting in a box and began painting incessantly. Less than a year later, she had grown a following on Instagram, taken a residency position at the arts centre The Base and began working as an artist full-time. Her work has since been exhibited and sold at The Contemporary Art Fair, the Insight Exhibition, and through her open access studio and website. Ellie is passionate about keeping the art space accessible and helping others.

https://www.instagram.com/elliekerrsmiley/

https://www.elliekerrsmiley.com

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Robyn is a self-taught artist from Bedford. She creates lovely illustrations of buildings in ink pen and watercolour, including many local architectural landmarks as well as private commissions of well-loved houses. 

https://www.instagram.com/robyncaley.illustration/

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This week I talk to automotive artist Andrew Hill about Design, Digital Art and Detail. Andrew has been creating his unique automotive art since 2009, building on his passion and skills learned working as a designer in the automotive design business. So whichever automotive icon Andrew chooses to paint, his sense of composition and use of colour embody the spirit of movement, speed and excitement that we all associate with our favourite cars and our passion for motorsport.

Andrew has exhibited widely across the UK including at the Ferrari Owners Club Days, Beaulieu, Supercar Fest, Classic Car Show, Autosport, Prescott Hill Climb, Salon Privé, Goodwood Festival of Speed, Goodwood Revival and the RAC Club in London. Following the RAC exhibition in 2016, he now has a number of original paintings on permanent display in the RAC Club Pall Mall and Woodcote Park.

Andrew also worked as 'artist in residence' with Aston Martin Racing spending five days with the team at Le Mans in June 2014. This work culminated in an exhibition at West-One, Aston Martin’s premier showroom on Park Lane, London and then within the Aston Martin VIP Hospitality suite at Le Mans 2015.

Andrew creates his artwork both traditionally on canvas using acrylic paint or ‘on screen’ utilising the latest digital techniques. This allows him to produce both original artworks and limited edition prints in a traditional format and unique limited edition prints on aluminium and acrylic panel, to give a more modern and contemporary approach. He is available to support various events with 'live painting' demonstrations and to work on corporate projects.

Of course, private commissions are also undertaken. Following initial consultation with the client to agree size, format and cost, Andrew will create a number of quick sketches for review to agree composition, colour approach etc before starting final artwork. To commission your own unique artwork or for any other information please contact Andrew directly on:

Mobile: +44 (0) 7494 708545

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.automotive-images.co.uk

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British figurative artist Amanda Rackowe is now based in Southern France. She paints a wide variety of subjects, using her incredible skill with light and perspective as her constant. Amanda talks about her relationship with her collectors, her journey from theatre lighting to artist and what makes a painting differ from photography.

Amanda has exhibited extensively and was invited to exhibit at the prestigious Art Capital at the Grand Palais Ephemere in Paris, back in February.

www.amandarackowe.com

https://www.instagram.com/amanda.rackowe.art/

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Talking Murals, motherhood and movement with contemporary artist Farrah Fortnam.

Farrah is an acclaimed Bristol street artist with over 100 murals painted in 3 years alone. She has created stunning large murals for Upfest, the BRI and the Van Gogh Expo to name a few. Farrah painted two unicorns for the Unicornfest last summer. She also runs art workshops and classes. Her work is uplifting and beautiful. She has her own very distinctive style which can be recognised easily. She wants to raise awareness of protecting and nurturing nature and our beautiful planet.

www.farrahcontemporaryart.com

@Farrahcontemporaryart

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Reduction, revealing and The Royal Academy, a cvonversation with one of the UK's most talented lino print artists, Alexandra Buckle.

Alexandra lives in Bicester and draws inspiration from countryside walks and the changes in weather and season upon the landscape. These scenic discoveries are transformed into colourful, impressionistic linocuts. Most prints are worked in reduction whereby layers of colour are cut and printed from the same block, destroying it in the process and limiting the edition. Themes for Alexandra’s prints include sun streaming through woodlands and trees, twinkling water and reflections, carpets of flowers, expansive rocky coastlines and nostalgic seaside scenes. More recently, adventures from a trip to Japan have sparked a collection of works.

Alexandra has been a full-time printmaker since 2012. Her linocuts have been displayed at the Royal Academy, the Bankside Gallery and Mall Galleries in London and her work sells to collectors across the UK and internationally. She has been a best seller on the Artfinder online marketplace for several years and has recently been selected as an Artfinder Artist Ambassador to help shape the future of the platform.

Alexandra teaches several group lino printing workshops a year. Visit her website for more details.

AlexandraBuckle.co.uk  

https://www.instagram.com/alexandra.buckle/

Oxfordshire Art Week 4th-27th May 2024 https://www.artweeks.org/

Bucks Art Weel 8th - 23rd June 2024

https://www.bucksartweeks.org.uk/

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I talk to contemporary landscape artist Ellis O'Connor about residencies, realism and routine. How the environment inspires her painting and how she uses what she feels rather than what she sees, to create her awe-inspiring works.

Ellis O’Connor is a Contemporary Landscape Artist working in the medium of painting using mixed materials and various tools to create evocative and experimental interpretations of the environment around her from her home on the Isle of Skye.

Ellis has been working full time as an artist for 7 years and has spent time living and teaching in Iceland, has taken part in numerous art residences around the world and spent a period of time sailing on a research expedition around the Archipelago of Svalbard in 2022. 

The paintings that Ellis creates are her interpretation of not what she sees outside but what she feels; the energy, the atmosphere, the fleeting moments of elemental weather passing by; all responses to observations through the medium of paint in an expressive and gestural way. This overall connects the viewer to the power and emotion of the land around us. 

https://www.ellisoconnor.com

https://www.instagram.com/ellisoconnor/

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I talk to the wonderful landscape artist Cat Croxford about trousers, turquoise and teaching. How being raised by an artist Mum shaped her life and how she made the transition from the corporate world into full time artist.

Cat is a professional artist based in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, taking most of her inspiration from woodlands and forests. Self taught, she grew up in a family of artists and after a few years of working in the corporate world, Cat left to run paintings courses with her Mother’s art school. She developed a practice as a portraitist, eventually moving to landscapes as her love for the woods took hold. Her work can be found in galleries across the south and she regularly exhibits at Affordable and Fresh Art Fairs. She is also involved in curating yearly exhibitions with invited artists in Henley on Thames, soon to be adding a second in North Yorks. Cat continues to run painting courses in South Oxfordshire.

https://www.catcroxford.com

https://www.instagram.com/catcroxfordartist/

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