Considering Art Podcast – Melita Denaro, painter

Melita Denaro paints landscapes from her home on the Isle of Doagh in the Irish county of Donegal. In this episode, she talks about childhood memories, studying ceramics, working as an art teacher in a tough north London school, charming her way into the Royal Academy Schools, making a series on the Crucifixion based on The Troubles in Northern Ireland, how she was persuaded to take up landscape painting en plain air, how light is the most important aspect of her works and how she copes with Multiple Sclerosis.

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March 3, 2025 0

Considering Art Podcast – Yeside Linney, painter

Yeside Linney only took up art professionally after retiring from a career as an English teacher. Yet her landscapes, portraits and abstract works have brought her early success in terms of prizes and exhibitions. In this episode, she talks about life in English boarding schools to which she was sent from her birthplace in Nigeria, how she “decolonises” her past through the themes of her artwork, how she focuses on the feminine side of Yoruba culture, how her English upbringing and Nigerian heritage gives her an “enduring vulnerability”, how her work has a brooding element and is mood-driven, and why she made a series entitled Scarification.

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February 24, 2025 0

Considering Art Podcast – Nina Gonzalez-Park, multi-disciplinary artist

In this episode, Nina talks about the many countries in which she grew up, how she opted for a career in science but then decided to take an MA in Art and Science at London’s Central St Martin’s, how her sculptures often have a scientific basis, how her kitesurfing hobby spawned an artwork, her attraction to steel pipes as a sculptural material, how food has become an artistic focus and how she is co-leading an experimental project involving artists from CSM and scientists from Oxford University aimed at pushing the boundaries between art and science.

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February 10, 2025 0

Considering Art Podcast – Ya La’Ford, multi-media artist

Ya La’Ford is an American of Jamaican heritage who makes paintings, murals, sculpture and installations designed to bring communities together. In this podcast she talks about her early engagement with art, the influence of Jamaica on her art and life, taking a law degree before an art one, the influence of abstract expressionism on her geometric designs, the importance of bridging communities and examples of her site-specific installations.

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February 3, 2025 0

Considering Art Podcast – Paul Huxley RA, abstract artist

Veteran abstract artist Paul Huxley has had a long and distinguished career both as an artist and an educator at some of Britain’s most prestigious art institutions. In this episode, he talks about studying at junior art school, his attraction to abstract painting, getting a career boost at The New Generation exhibition in 1964, befriending legendary abstract expressionist figures while in New York, the influence of other artists and of theatre on his works, his experience of teaching art and the challenges he loves about determining the shapes, size, colour, balance and relationships within the geometric and serpentine features that characterise his paintings.

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January 27, 2025 0

Considering Art Podcast – Martha Hussey, textile artist

London-based Martha Hussey has built a reputation as an innovative artist using fibre, yarn and embroidery threads. In this episode, she talks about creativity in her family, how she opted for textiles after taking a degree in Fine Art, how working as a model in the fashion industry introduced her to new stitching techniques which she has developed in her art, how personal therapy led her to taking a course in art therapy for children, and about examples of her work including portraits, wall hangings and soft set designs for animated films.

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January 20, 2025 0

Considering Art Podcast – Lorna May Wadsworth, painter

In this episode, acclaimed portrait painter Lorna May Wadsworth talks about how she began painting celebrities as a teenager, how her first London solo exhibition subverted the traditional male gaze, the experience of painting Baroness Thatcher over five sittings, how she depicted Christ as a black man to which someone took exception, the imaginative materials she has sometimes used in place of canvas, how she painted a relative of someone executed during the French Revolution, and why working quickly brings out the best in her.

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December 9, 2024 0

Considering Art Podcast – Joe Fig, painter

American artist Joe Fig talks about his Contemplation series in which he paints pictures of people in art galleries and museums looking at paintings, most recently last year’s Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam. He discusses the concept, his process and his fascination with body language. He also talks about the miniature sculptures he makes of artists in their studios, both historical and current, and how he constructs their implements in miniature and in extraordinary detail.

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December 2, 2024 0

Considering Art Podcast – Tom Waugh, sculptor

In this episode, sculptor Tom Waugh talks about how he got the idea for sculpting in stone everyday objects such as crumpled cardboard boxes, takeaway coffee lids, jerry cans and wheelie bins, how these serve as both amusing but also carry an environmental message, the techniques he uses to create the hyperreal effect, how some are offended by his works and how he chooses the type of stone to suit the subject.

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November 25, 2024 0

Considering Art Podcast – Jim Murray, artist, actor, angler, activist

Jim Murray is an actor well known for Masters of the Air, Primeval and playing Prince Andrew in The Crown. In this episode, he talks about how his love for art and action painting was ignited as a way to process his grief following the death of his young daughter 16 years ago, how his first acclaimed solo exhibition was inspired by John Constable, why he called it In Flow, how he has combined his other passion of angling with art in an unusual way in a new exhibition, and what art gives him that acting can’t.

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November 11, 2024 0