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Right, bit of a slight different one today. I read loads of other posts on here and I never really share them, which is a bit rubbish of me to be honest. So here’s 7 of the buggers I’ve read over the last week. Go and give them a follow and a read, subscribe if you like too.

1. Does Political Art Cost You a Career?

by

Science of Art

Does Political Art Cost You a Career?

The friendship…

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6 days ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Shagun Singh

Sadly, she lost a whole group of friends because they didn’t want to talk about colonialism, and then she went digging (as she so expertly does each post) into whether speaking out actually costs artists anything. Turns out you only ever hear about the Banksys, how brave. No neat answer at the end either, which I definately respect. Made me think of the Salon des Refusés we’re doing at Studio BRUT (it’s all work that got turned down somewhere else), entries close 8 November if you’ve got something sat in a drawer or something that some asshold slated and you felt a bit sad, get it out, be loud and proud.

2. There are not too many creators on the internet

by

Amie McNee

There are not too many creators on the internet

One of my toxic traits is that I don’t listen to music lyrics. I just listen to (and sing!) the sounds. I was incredibly close to walking down the isle to Re:Stacks by Bon Iver, before James told me that perhaps people might find that weird what with it being a song about the horrific aftermath of a collapsed relationship. Needless to say James listens …

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13 days ago · 275 likes · 50 comments · Amie McNee

Amie’s pumped up in this one (I love her rants, she really cares about us artists). There aren’t too many of us, nobody’s listening, that’s the problem. And when it’s someone else’s turn you should actually ‘shut up and listen’. Fair point.

3. Unpolish yourself

by

Let's Go Again

Unpolish yourself

I’m sitting in an acting class on 10th Avenue in February. My bones are cold. The walk from the N train to Hell’s Kitchen is always much longer than I expect…

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9 days ago · 14 likes · 7 comments · Courtney Romano

Starts in an acting class in Hell’s Kitchen with the radiator clanking away. A bloked in her class said “energy cannot pass through tension” 18 years ago and it’s been stuck in her head ever since. Probably in mine now too, ahhh. She’s on about artists online all copying the same template, and with the way I paint, yeah. Reminds me of my three year old’s favourite song.

4. The Open Call List #139

by

The Open Call List

The Open Call List #139

Hi, Welcome to The Open Call List #139…

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2 days ago · 4 likes · Aidan Avery

For the photographers out here. Aidan does the wading through open call shit every week so you don’t have to, 31 calls this week, 16 free to enter. He only puts in ones that are fair to the artist, which shouldn’t be rare but is. There’s a lot off piss-takers out there, vanity galleries galore.

5. Everything you can see

by

Austin Kleon

Everything you can see

Hey y’all…

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5 days ago · 226 likes · 18 comments

Austin’s ten tings of the week. There’s a William Kentridge quote in there about the serious and the (Steve) light, and the absurd sitting somewhere in between. I’ll be tea-leafing that one.

6. Success That Costs You Everything Else Is Too Expensive

by

Marc Randolph's Substack

Success That Costs You Everything Else Is Too Expensive

In the six weeks before Netflix launched, I more or less stopped being a person. Home around 6:30, scarf down dinner with the family, back in the car by seven, work until whenever. Lorraine got twenty minutes. The kids got less…

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a day ago · 32 likes · 3 comments · Marc Randolph

Not an art one. Marc co-founded Netflix and he’s saying a sprint is meant to be short. If you’ve been sprinting for two years, that’s not a sprint, that’s just your life now. Day job, studio, painting in between... bit close to home that one. I do love his wise posts every now and again.

7. Composting

by

The Clearing by Katherine May

Composting

Begin or renew an annual subscription this month, and you’ll be automatically entered into a prize draw to win my writing essentials • Catch me live at One Track Minds on 19th October or in conversation with Sarah Moss on 26th October • My next book…

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13 days ago · 81 likes · 13 comments · Katherine May

Short one. She wrote down an old poem years ago, loved it for a week, lost it, and now she can’t find it anywhere, I can feel her annoyance. It’s about forgetting mattering as much as remembering. Free to read if you claim it through the free post thing on Substack.

That’s me for now

Anyway, that’s me. If you’ve read something good lately, chuck it in the comments below. Let’s get reading.

Cheers. Next one’s Wednesday. Subscribe and it comes direct to your inbox.

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I’ve got a book of sigils, which I’m really into, esoteric stuff, and it’s probably not in my art enough. Whether I 100% believe in it or not is another thing, but I do. I’m totally open to things like that.

So this book of sigils, it’s got a circle with symbols inside it. So this one was to ward off evil according to the book, the Book of Sigils.

So I put that in the top left and I don’t know why I chose that. Whether the characters in the piece looked evil to me, but this is the one I picked.

More painting, more painting, more painting, which is the thing that I love doing, that we all love doing as artists.

So I managed to go and have a painting session this week. And we had some little guests with us. So it wasn’t a full immersive painting session, but it was painting. And I’ll take that.

Thanks for the inspiration; a video of the painting process below. It’s still work in progress:

I wanted to talk a bit about my interiority. It’s a big word for me. Around doing kind of automatic painting, painting without a plan, painting from feeling, whatever you want to call it.

There was no plan really for this piece.

And, yeah, so I was building upon what was there from last week, putting some new layers on. And I started painting infinity symbols all over the canvas, more circles.

And I was enjoying it. And then I had the idea to scrape across the background with, it’s like a children’s sponge type thing. And I scraped across.

None of it matters

And then it felt like it was, like I fucked it up.

And then I started to doubt myself. And I was thinking, it looks weird now, and I don’t know where this is going.

But I’m still sitting with it. None of it matters.

I can throw it in the bin if I want to. It’s not that I’m going to waste the canvas, but I can paint over it if I need to.

I’m really intrigued to see where this goes over a longer period.

Most of my paintings have a plan. And it’s painted within a few hours, in itself, self-contained kind of session, or maybe two sessions.

So I’m going to carry this one on. And report back how I feel about it and what’s going on with it.

I’ve had this other series in my head which is more planned, which is fine.

I try and catch myself when I have black and white thinking. Because I’m like, oh, I should be doing it all flowy and freely and that’s what artists should do.

And then a part of me wants to have some kind of plan. And I like having reference images to paint from, and I enjoy that too.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s no rules in art.

Don’t hire humans

So I want to paint this series about how AI is replacing human effort in many ways. And it’s happening quite insidiously, I think, because I use these tools a lot. I see how the capability changes.

So I saw these ads online. I can’t remember the name of the company. It will come to me, but I’ll mention it below.

And it shows these provocative billboards. And it says, don’t hire humans or something like that. Hire one of our AI agents for x amount a month.

And I found these different billboards and tube adverts that people share. And I really wanted to paint them. Because a very, very up to date kind of thing that we’re experiencing, and I wanted to document that.

On the whole I feel positive about it

Because it’s something I’m interested in and also ever so slightly concerned about as well.

But on the whole I feel positive about it. In terms of giving people the tools to create things. And to get rid of basically the mundane work that we don’t like.

I think if artists get it right then they can have their dream of painting all the time. And a lot of the other stuff, you can have an assistant help you with that.

I don’t know how that’ll look, but I want to paint that series next.

So I’m going to start doing that soon and then also carry on with this regular moon painting. I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s got a moon in the top left.

The kind of meditation around the whole thing and reflection is, I think, a good thing for artists to reflect on what they’re doing. And what comes out of their psyche onto canvas.

I think having that perspective, and of course using it as a therapeutic tool as well, is always incredible. And never ceases to amaze me.

I’ve joined a Skool community

So I’ve joined a Skool community. And if you haven’t heard of Skool, you have been sleeping under a rock. Because it’s people saying it’s like the Amazon of courses.

I know Amazon gets a bad rap for being greedy or whatnot. But Skool has become such a trusted brand for having a course on it. The brand is so strong that it gives your course credibility.

What I’m going to do is learn how to set up my own Skool community where people pay a certain amount a month. Which I haven’t decided how much that would be yet.

I’ve thought about doing this before. But the meta thing about joining this Skool community about how to set up a Skool community is the guy who set it up has done this himself multiple times in multiple Skool communities.

And he’s got a process on how to do it.

And I think it speaks volumes when you’ve done the thing yourself.

Anyone can have a Skool community

And part of the inspiration for the guy who set up Skool is that they’re basically saying anyone can have a Skool community. They call it a hobby plan. So it’s like $8 a month to run your own Skool community.

And it’s got an easy way to add your own courses, like your own group calls. Which is built onto the platform, so you don’t have to use Zoom, which is amazing in itself. Zoom Pro costs more than that a month, I think.

And I can see myself doing that, because I like helping people. But I don’t know what the exact topic is yet. I know, obviously, there’s the topic of art, but I don’t want to teach art.

Maybe I could teach how to be an artist or how to set up a website as an artist. Or I don’t know.

But the thing that has inspired me about this particular community is he’s got a kind of framework to help you do that.

And the first idea that comes into your head isn’t normally the best, because there’s so many different angles you can use, so many different things you could teach.

And there’s a bit of kind of market research that comes before that, which is important. I’ve looked into business for years, and it’s like entrepreneurship.

Most people have got it backwards

Most people have got it backwards.

Like people think, I’ll offer my products and services and hope that the right people will find me.

But what I found is with successful businesses, ventures, it doesn’t matter what size it is, you’re finding a niche. I don’t want to say niche. You’re finding your customers. You’re finding your market, sorry, of people who want the thing already.

So that’s where the market research comes in. You know that a certain amount of people have this issue. And you’re there to help solve that.

And it sounds so simple. It’s like we often miss the most simple thing for whatever reason. There’s not any fault of our own. We might be too busy.

We might just think there’s another way of doing it.

But if you stick to that kind of golden rule in business, find people who want the thing, or which is another way of saying, find the problem that multiple people have. And then solve that problem by charging an amount for a Skool community.

We’ve all got that inside us

And we’ve all got that inside us. Like we’ve overcome certain things. It doesn’t have to be a business one either. It could be how to play guitar or how to paint watercolours.

And I didn’t want to do a painting one because I don’t know how I paint. I don’t follow techniques, as you know.

But I’m sure there’s a lot of people reading this who do have like repeatable skills. And they can teach that to other people.

So I’ll share the link below to have a look at Skool and you’re welcome to give it a go if you want.

And yeah, I’m excited about this.

I’ve created a product to help artists set up their own solo shows

I’ve finally created a product. And I always have to go on a tangent where I’m kind of putting myself down a bit.

But in the past, I’ve always doubted my abilities, even though other people say that I can do quite a lot of good work and whatnot. But I’ve never really known what to create a course around.

I had this idea, because I’ve set up lots of exhibitions. It seems it’s easy to me, because I’ve done it many times. And I’ve overcome the hurdles and the pitfalls and all that.

So I wanted to present to you, before anyone else, my solo kit.

It’s taken from all of my six years, how long has it been? 2019, six, seven years, getting back into art, setting up many solo exhibitions and putting that into a guide.

So anyone who’s been a bit shy about sharing your work, or having exhibitions, or fed up with waiting for galleries to show the work for you. This is a way that you can take your fate into your own hands.

So I wanted to share it with my Substack readers, 50% off. So if you have a look below you can check it out. And please give me feedback on it because I’m very open.

Cream of the Crop readers get 50% off with code SUBSTACK50 until Wednesday 21 October: https://slart.me/solo-show-kit.html

Learn more

And it’s got a money back guarantee. So if you give it a go and you don’t like it, just give me a shout. And I’ll refund your money, no questions asked.

Fianlly, I’m still planning the Salon of the Rejects, and that’s coming up soon, so you’ll be updated.

My comments are always open. Will reply to every comment.

So that’s me for now, over and out,

SLART.

They’re quite varied, to be honest. They’re not like your average art books, but I really think every one of these has its place, and together they form quite a powerful collection.

All pretty short reads, but powerful reads. So without further ado, let’s get into the list. That’s why you’re here.

Book 1: Artorious’ Guide to Navigate the Art World as an Artist, Artorious

Stumbled across this one, I think back in 2021. The guy who wrote it is an anonymous art collector, apparently, and he wrote a book on how to navigate the art world as an artist, as the title says.

I found it interesting because, first of all, it’s a very short book. It takes you through the process of setting up your website, documenting your work so it’s all published on your website, and getting the branding right.

It’s minimalist, and he gives examples of Gerhard Richter, who has a very clear site and has been documenting his work for like 60 years. He also gives examples of the big mega galleries, and how they all share a kind of minimalist look.

This book alone has put me in good stead as an artist, documenting my journey, documenting my art as it’s progressed over the past five years since I got my studio.

I’d recommend it to anyone. It’s a real gem, honestly. It’s so simple. Artists at any level can get something from it.

Even though we don’t know who he is, the actual sentiment and the structure of the book, you can tell it’s from someone who knows what they’re talking about. So I recommend this one, and you can check out the link below to purchase.

Good for: Simply learnings on documenting and presenting your art.

Learn more

Book 2: Letters to a Young Artist, Anna Deavere Smith

Again, I stumbled across this one. I can’t remember where, but I think someone recommended this book. This was the wrong book. It was Letters to a Young Artist by a different author.

I can’t remember exactly what stood out in this book, but Anna shares her journey in the art world as a performing artist, and there’s lots of parallels. She teaches you how to carry yourself in that world. No one’s going to do it for you, so you have to know your worth, you have to stand up to the decision makers in a powerful way.

It’s not an instructional book by any means. It’s more autobiographical and, like I said, written in the style of letters to a young artist.

Just reading this gave me inspiration and intrinsic motivation to keep doing what I’m doing, really. It was a nice, easy read because it wasn’t too formal. It was like reading a biography of sorts.

Good for: Inspirational stories, letters and wisdom from a fellow artist.

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Book 3: Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, Lawrence Weschler

This is the biography of Robert Irwin, who I’ve spoken about in other posts. I only heard about him recently, and I found out he passed, I think it was last year, 2025 or 2024. His book has blown me away, and I’ve watched a lot of his videos. There’s so much in it.

It’s written by Lawrence Weschler, and it takes you through Irwin’s life from a young age, how he used to hang out in the 50s and loved detailing his car. He was really into detail and making his car look really nice, painting it, stuff like that. He went on to join the art movements of the 60s in LA.

What really hit home, and I didn’t expect this to inspire me, was how he experiments. He experiments more like a scientist than an artist, but not in a rigid way as such. If you read his work, when you read this book, he is quite rigid in terms of when he’s really focused on something. He did spend weeks and weeks on a certain thing and getting it right.

But what I got from it, what my takeaway was, approaching art as an experimenter and doing that as part of your art practice makes it stronger in a way, because you’re diving deeper into something rather than doing things randomly.

My example, my first project after reading this book was the cube that I made. Robert often experimented with a question in his mind, and my question was, what does peace of mind feel like in a space?

So I made a cube structure, and on my first edition of this, I put in a TV and a video game system from my childhood, in this kind of cave. It had black coverings over it, so it was safe, black, and cosy. It felt like a faded memory. I wanted to make it like my childhood bedroom, and I didn’t have the time or resources to do that, so I made it the feeling of a childhood bedroom, where I was doing an activity that I would lose myself in.

Robert would experiment with these kind of questions in terms of using light and shadow and materials, and he’s done so many projects. I don’t know if he’s that well known. He’s got his own corner of the art world, but he’s not up there like Andy Warhol or something like that, even though he should be.

I highly recommend this to any artist really. It doesn’t matter what discipline you’re in, you’ll get something from it.

Learn more

Good for: Inspirational biography and new way of seeing.

Book 4: Unleash the Power of Puerility, Mark Denton Esq.

I came across Mark. I never heard of him before, he was an interesting guy. I contacted Dave Trott, who’s a big ad man from the 80s, because I wanted some help. I like exploring creativity, and I’ve watched a lot of videos on advertising and marketing and all that, and I got into Dave’s books on advertising.

I emailed Dave and I said, could you help me get my head around the advertising of art and art exhibitions? Then he put me in touch with Mark Denton, and I thought it was Mark Denton who wrote Slow Horses, so I emailed him saying, I love your TV show Slow Horses, can we have a chat about this, blah blah blah.

He said, ‘I wish I wrote Slow Horses’, and it wasn’t him, it was Mark Denton who’s this really quirky, amazing, lovely guy, artist, ad man as well from the 80s. He’s in his late 60s now, and we had a chat over Zoom. We had a really nice conversation about it, and I’ll link to it below actually, I put it in one of my Substack posts.

Bookmark it for later if you like, it’s a good one.

Back to his book, he shows a lot of his ads that he worked on, he shows his art, his drawings, his illustrations, and it’s all in a very quirky way. He’s advocating why you should be silly as an adult, and it inspires me a lot, because he’s 20 odd years my senior and he’s still tapping into that youthful creativity.

We get to a certain age and we think we shouldn’t be silly, we shouldn’t act like a kid or do anything out of the box, but his book reinforces the need to bring back that childhood wonder. It’s a heavily photographic book, a coffee table read, but you’ll get so much from it just looking through it.

Fantastic book.

Good for: Remembering your childhood silliness.

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Book 5: We Need Your Art, Amie McNee

I think I found on Instagram, it just popped up in art feeds. She’s a big advocate of inspiring people to make more art, and that is her core message. She shares that all the time and it’s really inspiring, and seeing that repeatedly has definitely inspired me a lot.

I got her book, I think it came out last year, 2025. She’s an author and a visual artist as well, and she goes through the process of getting unstuck, getting back into art, and inspiring you in many other ways.

It’s a real gentle conversational read, but it hits you hard as well, so I’d recommend that one. This work has helped me a lot.

Good for: Nurting inspiration and motivation.

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Book 6: The Medium Is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore

First and foremost, the book was The Medium Is the Message, but when it went to print it was mistyped as massage. From what I remember it was left like that because they couldn’t afford to reprint it, and it’s become a thing. I think he was pissed off at the time, but it’s become quite a legendary story.

I was drawn to his work, I don’t know where I found it, but again, looking into different creative mediums. He was a big proponent of, I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. His work was based in the 60s, where the television revolution was happening, and he explains how that has shaped people’s perceptions.

It’s basically the beginning of the bombardment of mass media. We all use the term global village. That’s the first time that we all knew in a big way what was happening in the outside world.

It was only TV and radio back then, but it was still a huge opening of information coming into our minds, and seeing news broadcasts in different countries, lots of cartoons, an explosion of films and programmes like Batman, and comic books, and all that kind of stuff.

It’s a short read and a visual read as well, and I’d recommend it just to mix up your brain a bit and get you thinking in different ways. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that, but I just recommend it.

It’s a short read, an interesting read, it will change your mindset, and only cost you a fiver I think, so it’s definitely worth it.

Good for: Mind bending perspectives grounded in modern reality.

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Book 7: Betty Swollocks Is Like David Shrigley After Four Cans of Special Brew, Betty Swollocks

As you know, I’m a big fan of David Shrigley, and I’m actually shocked I haven’t read one of his books yet. So I will make sure I do that and I’ll report back. But this other book came up as a recommendation.

Artists who use a kind of rudimentary style, childlike style, expressive style always inspire me. This book is line drawings and a bit like Shrigley, with little quotes underneath and little lines about each person.

It’s just inspired me to carry on the way I’m going, because I think you need those inspirations around you that tell you it’s okay to do what you’re doing, especially when we’re feeling self-doubting a lot.

This one again is a short book, it’s quite funny, and it’s got, I can’t remember how many drawings it’s got, maybe 100 or something. But yeah, have a look and let me know what you think.

Good for: Inspiration, humour and realising all art isn’t like Picasso’s.

Learn more

Thanks so much for reading this. I hope you’ve bought yourself a book or two, you deserve it. Tell me if you’ve read any of these books, tell me what you think below. If you have any book recommendations for me, please post in the comments below as well.

Share with an artist friend if you like.

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Goodbye for now and I’ll speak to you soon.

SLART.

I’ve done some painting this week, which is the thing, as I always say. It’s the thing. Everything else is noise.

I feel like it’s not done as often as I should. I get caught between wanting to leave my job so I can paint full time.

Then there’s a transition between how can I finance that. That’s been going on for the past three years, maybe longer since I’ve been writing Cream of the Crop.

It’s an ongoing dilemma for a lot of artists.

I just feel I just want to share how that is all going.

Back to the painting first and foremost

Back to the painting first and foremost. I brought down the studio for a bit, and I started painting this oil painting.

It’s got quite a few layers in the background. I’ve had some real fun trying to act like Mark Rothko, inspired by his documentary.

I was painting a mixed, not colour, but shades of blue and grey in the background. I can share that below.

Underneath this painting, you’ve got a few interesting layers, which I find quite fascinating in art. Knowing that there’s different layers underneath it or painting over something.

It’s cool to know, isn’t it?

So I’ll share that below. I had this dark, very dark blue background and I painted three figures.

I mixed a load of paint oils with linseed oil. And a bit of pink, a bit of red with a tiny bit of blue.

I painted these three figures, which I showed in a previous Substack, and I’ll show the stages below.

Months of layers below my latest painting:

The latest stages:

Letting go and painting freely. Well, trying to.

I have no plan and that makes me feel uncomfortable

What I wanted to share was I have no plan and that makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m not one who’s overly planned, as I’ve said a lot of times before.

Overly planning makes me feel uncomfortable. Under planning makes me feel uncomfortable.

I guess I like the Goldilocks of planning, just the right amount of planning.

So what I mean by that is I like to have a theme in my head that I’ve thought about before. And I’ve got a rough starting point, which is usually an image of a person or some kind of starting point.

It usually is an image of a person.

I can draw that figure, paint that figure first of all or after doing the background. So this time I painted these rough figures, abstract figures, and I didn’t know where it was going to go.

That feels really uncomfortable because I don’t know if it’s going to be any good. And that feels uncomfortable as well.

It feels like driving a ship without a rudder. Or driving a car without a steering wheel for lack of a better metaphor.

But it is a bit like that.

I found myself putting layers and layers over these figures. And outlining their eyes and putting some extra layers in the background.

I don’t know what it means or know where it’s going. Maybe some of that fear is around explaining the artwork.

Like most of my work is autobiographical. And it’s based on things that have occurred in my life, kidney disease, loss, grief, bereavement.

It’s not all depressing, I promise. It’s all uplifting, putting a humorous spin on all that childhood memories.

It’s a melting pot of all my experiences and this one isn’t. So it doesn’t fit in a category and I don’t know what’s going to happen.

I don’t like that.

I’m sure a lot of artists, you’d agree, but I’d love to have the freedom of an abstract expressionist. But I guess thinking about that, they’ve got their own framework in their mind.

It’s not totally free, is it? I don’t know.

But anyway, I enjoyed the session nonetheless. It was returning home.

It was doing something that I love so much and it relaxes me absolutely. It’s like no other feeling in terms of getting into the so-called flow state.

Even though it was uncomfortable not knowing where the subject was going, it was also very relaxing and freeing.

Maybe I will freak out and then start putting some structure to it in terms of theme.

But maybe I won’t. I don’t know.

Why would you give away the meaning of the painting anyway?

It reminded me. I was watching a David Shrigley video the other day. And he says he doesn’t really have any description for his work.

He has a rough description overall, but he doesn’t have a detailed synopsis of each painting. And then a lot of people say, why would you give away the meaning of the painting anyway?

Isn’t that for the viewer to decide?

And that is true, of course, isn’t it? You see many paintings and you have your own interpretation of it.

And then you might read the synopsis and it will change your perspective. Or it will match what you’re already thinking.

Does it actually add to it? I’m asking you, does having a description add to it or does it detract from it?

I heard someone else say that you’re not supposed to... I say supposed to, but there’s no rules.

You’re not supposed to read the description of the painting before looking at it. Because that’s going to pre-determine your perception of it.

And the idea I’ve heard a curator say is you look at the painting. And then you can read the synopsis.

But I don’t know. Just talking out loud, thinking out loud.

All I know is I enjoy what I’m doing.

I love painting so much. And I will be getting back into phase two of what does peace of mind feel like in a space.

And following on from my first cube, Memento.

So that’s me for now, over and out,

SLART.

P.S. Before you go Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel for a more audio visual flavour of SLART. I want to get over 1000 subs by end of October.

P.P.S mentioned a video and I forgot that I filmed this.

Hello, SLART here, and welcome to Weekly Art Practice, AKA Projekt Rattloch.

Grant application news

I’ve had some good news this week in terms of grant applications. I have got through to the next round in Unlimited, the grant for a sculpture project. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. The idea is to have a sculpture in a sculpture park in East Anglia.

My idea was a “sculpturisation”, which isn’t even a real word, but I like using it, of my piece “Time, the Great Equaliser”. It’s an hourglass with a baby at one end and a skeleton dripping into a grave at the other end. I want to make it into a sculpture, and part of that is fabrication. That basically means getting someone who’s an expert in steel, or whatever material we use (to be honest, I don’t know), to help create the sculpture for me from my idea. I know it’s all very Damien Hirst, getting someone else to do your work, but I’m excited about it.

They sent an acknowledgement that my application has been successful in the first round. The way it works is you apply for the projects, and then it’s decided by the committee whether it’s put forward. So I’m chuffed about that. I’ll keep you posted, of course, and see what happens. No, let’s think positive, I’m going to get the grant, there we are.

Artsy and Studio BRUT

Another thing going on this week: I have a lot of ideas, as you know, but I wanted to see if I can get an Artsy account. I know they’re not the gods of selling art or anything, but I think it does build a certain credibility for artists, and you can’t normally get on it unless you’re a gallery.

So what I wanted to do is register Studio BRUT as an organisation, and then go through the funding or application route to get an account on Artsy. That would in turn allow Studio BRUT’s artists to sell their work on Artsy. I think that kind of credibility boost is going to help anyone, but outsiders especially, to feel that sense of credibility. Not that you need it; you can say “fuck it” to credibility. But it’s just an idea that I’m pursuing.

It costs, I can’t remember exactly, I’m sure it’s about £800 a month, which is quite a lot. But if I get, say, 50 artists on there, it’s supporting them and getting Studio BRUT out there on the Artsy scene. Pretty cool. What do you think? Has anyone got experience of Artsy on here? I did see a post the other day about an artist on Substack who got accepted to Artsy. I can’t remember his name, but I’ll see if I can find that post and get in touch with him to check it out.

Update: here it is, congrats Wade!

Supporting Jacksta Art

I’ve been supporting my artist friend, Jaskta Art, with uploading his YouTube videos, which has been quite cool. I’ve also been helping set up his Shopify account, so he’s got some nice framed pictures on there. It’s a print-on-demand service called Printumo. You put your artwork on there and they handle the fulfilment. Someone buys from you, you pay them, say, £50 out of that, and then you keep the rest of the money from the customer.

I’ve been exploring that for my own art as well, but it’s taken a back seat because I’ve got so many plates spinning. We’ll see how it goes with Jaksta. He said he wanted to put my art on there as well, which was really nice of him. I might put a couple of pieces on there, and you never know, he might grow it into having a few local artists on there. We’ll see how that goes.

Drawing and the secret project

I’ve still been drawing. For this secret project, I’ve set a plan of sorts where I draw seven drawings on a Monday lunchtime, email them to myself, and they get uploaded to the website. I’m not going to share it yet; I’m going to keep you hanging. I don’t know what I’m waiting for. Maybe I will just share it, but I kind of want to see it be successful before sharing, because it feels like it’s just another spontaneous SLART idea. Maybe next week I’ll change my mind, share it with you and see what you think. Watch this space.

Museum therapy AKA ‘museotherapy’

I also wanted to share this. My dear friend , who’s a fantastic coach, sent me this “museotherapy” concept, along with an accompanying Substack post, “Art, Memory, and Structured Encounters”, which I’m going to link below, well above now. It’s about the difference between clinical art therapy and using museum space as a kind of therapy. Beth was saying that in places like France they do prescribe going to museums, which I need to check out. It definitely does help, I think. You often get peace of mind from going around art galleries; they’re generally quite peaceful spaces. I’ll talk about it briefly, but you can read the post after.

The post is a conversation with Nicole Rademacher, a Los Angeles-based artist and clinician (an art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist). She describes an event where participants could express themselves in whatever way they wished, and it was all fluid and open. But as she is a professional practitioner based in America, she explains that there are different criteria for being a therapist (Than the UK). Clinical art therapy is more structured and has more of a support framework around it. Museum therapy is more about the experience, and there isn’t any follow-up. So if you went to a museum and it triggered something, there’s no follow-up to that. I think the article explains it a lot better than me, but I found the concept really interesting.

International Museotherapy Initiative

Art, Memory, and Structured Encounters

Nicole Rademacher, a Los Angeles–based conceptual artist and clinician (ATR-BC, LMFT), works across media, including video, collage, and participatory work. Her work has been shown at Transmediale, LOOP, and Los Angeles International Airport. She has developed a museotherapy model combining deep looking, somatic awareness, and reflective art-making, pil…

Read more

a month ago · 5 likes · Minette Hand and Nicole Rademacher

It links into the exploration I’ve been doing around Robert Irwin, who inspired me to make the cube space that I had at the BRUT opening. That’s now expanding into an ongoing installation where I experiment with the question: what does peace of mind feel like in a space? This has given me a new angle to work on. I’m going to start working on it again soon, taking the cube back into the studio after it’s been out in the gallery space.

YouTube Shorts

I’ve still been posting on YouTube Shorts, and I’ll put a little breakdown below. I haven’t had any massive outliers yet, but it’s been quite interesting and enjoyable to do. Any questions, please comment and I’ll get back to you.

So that’s me for now, over and out,

SLART.

P.S. Before you go Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel for a more audio visual flavour of SLART.

Greetings. This week has been a bit all over the place, in my mind. It feels like it’s a lot of plates in the air [spinning, I mean]. It is. Lots of different projects on the go. You know what I’m like, my ADHD brain is starting lots of things. But it’s all good, because the things that I don’t finish, I’m okay not to finish. And I need to think about the positives of the way my mind works but have more processes to to keep it together.

So when I use Claude and I’m talking about different ideas and work streams, it will flip to the context of what we’ve discussed before. Say, for example, if I’m discussing something to do with Studio BRUT, it will read its previous context on that. And the same for my SLART website, and then YouTube as well, and I’ve got some other website clients too. So it’s kind of like having a web manager that knows the context of each website. And that really helps with my ADHD brain.

Making the art is THE thing

Like I always say, making the art is the thing. And it’s the absolute most manual process. And it’s the most enjoyable part of anything I do. But there are those peripheral things that need to happen these days.

This week I’ve been biting the bullet and recording more reels and short form videos, very short form videos. We’re talking under 10 seconds, which is crazy. But this is part of what it seems like an artist has to do these days to get noticed. In one way it’s sad, but in the other way, you have to adapt to the way things are, I feel anyway. Because things aren’t going to go back to the old ways. But we can choose what manual ways of working we take on in our practice. Like the making art part and choosing when to engage with our slot machine phone devices.

Half my age and making thousands

I don’t know how I found it, but on YouTube I’ve been getting loads of videos about YouTube Shorts. And I see all these young guys, like 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, half my age and more, making thousands per month for posting short form content. And it seems like a lot of them are doing reactions to content a lot of people have viewed already. So I thought I’d give it a go.

I generally don’t like talking to camera. When I feel relaxed I do enjoy it, but it doesn’t come naturally to me, let’s say that. So I posted my first three videos and I wanted to share the results with you. This is easy to do and anyone can do it if you feel inclined to.

What I did was look for a popular art video on a different platform like TikTok, Instagram or Facebook. Download that video to your phone or computer, there’s various online software you can do that with for free. This is not a tutorial, I just want to tell you a bit about what I’ve been doing. It has to be something you’re interested in. Something perhaps that you would comment on, or you would find engaging as an artist yourself.

Then there’s an app where you can upload a video and add your reaction to it. So it’s got a little bit of screen with your face on it and you talk over the video while it plays. And it is very simple. I’ll share the link to the app if you want to take a look Reacts, it’s called. I would recommend any artist to try it. That’s if you have YouTube as well, because there’s a bit more risk posting it on the same platform. But, I’ve been testing it on Instagram and TikTok too.

You have to try not to think that you’re talking to an audience. Just pretend you’re talking to yourself, or a friend, about what you’re seeing on the screen. And that takes practice as well. I feel like it’s coming to me after a few videos.

The three videos (Now Four)

The first video I posted was a reaction to a beautiful little painting. This woman was painting using some stencils and it was like a landscape scene, done in time lapse. So I was just talking for a while saying, oh what’s she going to do here, that’s very beautiful, look at the multi-coloured trees.

The second video was a guy using unconventional means to paint and I thought that was kind of interesting. I commented on how much I love artists and how they just use mad things to create art. There’s no other kind of industry like it. You could get a stick and paint on a carrier bag. Silly example, I know. You could use any material to paint, any medium, anything. I think that’s quite cool.

And the third one was a bit of a tongue in cheek one. This guy was doing the reveal of his painting as a kid, and then ‘here’s one today’. I was basically saying that his childhood painting was better than his realistic picture. It was of a shark. And I found that quite funny. Not to laugh at my own comments, but the idea behind it was, as an outsider artist, I thought the kid one was more interesting. So I thought that worked.

Here’s the latest one since writing, Ed Sheeran as Jackson Pollock… (Please subscribe if you’re on YouTube)

And for the numbers: the first one got a thousand views. The second one, 1,200. And the third one, 1,500. That’s the initial 48 hours from posting, and it could go up over time as well. (Below, they’ve increased since).

Below: Right to left in posting order:

Is it boiling down to actually selling my art? Not at the moment. But it’s doing something and it’s getting a lot more views than I have before. You can add video commentary on your own work as well if you want to do that. And you don’t have to show your face. You could just do a voiceover, or an avatar or something. So I’ll carry on with that and I’m sure I’ll update you again.

A time that you can use

There’s a simple way to upload videos. You can use the YouTube API, and say you had some videos on your computer, you put them in a certain folder and you can get them scheduled to YouTube without having to go into YouTube. That’s another little time saving thing you could do as an artist. Spend a day creating, I don’t know, 30 videos and then schedule them to go out. It’s just one of those time saving devices, and not worrying about having to post every day. I think that works quite well for me so far anyway.

And I’m quite pleased with how I’ve documented my artwork overall. I think there might be a few pieces missing, but I’ve found a way to take a photo, give it the dimensions, and it will put it on my website. So that is quite useful. Because in the past it’s taken a while to update, and that’s just another admin thing. Now I can do it in a couple of minutes.

Please comment below if you’d like to see how it all works.

The Salon of the Rejected

I have been preparing for the Salon of the Rejected. The open call is ready, and it was delayed a bit because we were trying to get a date. So it’s going to be early December for the exhibition.

The idea behind that, if you didn’t read the previous post, was Jean Dubuffet hosted an exhibition [I checked after recording this: the Salon des Refusés was 1863, long before Dubuffet. His thing was Art Brut, collecting outsider art in the 1940s. Same spirit, different bloke]. It was basically the exhibition of the rejects, outside art that was rejected by the traditional salon. I’m looking forward to that.

The other ‘secret’’ project

There’s lots going on and I can’t wait to tell you about the secret projects. Not the 25 canvases one, the other one. So I published a book under this other project name, and it feels weird me saying it because I don’t want to show it yet. But I do want to say it, I just want to express it. I feel like it looks really good. It’s quite a fun little project. And I don’t know why I don’t want to share it yet. I feel like I want to establish it a bit more. I’ll update you when it feels right to me.

A bird’s eye view

I kind of feel like I need to step back a little bit. I always say this, but I need a bird’s eye view of the things I’m working on, to be a bit clearer, because my ADHD brain thrives on taking action on things. And I can easily get caught in a loop of doing something. I get really hyper focused and I need to finish this thing, which has its strengths, doesn’t it? But sometimes I get a spare 10 minutes and I’m working on something and then I have to go and do something with family, and there’s still the feeling of unfinished work. So I need to work on that. If you have any tips, I’d really appreciate it, of course. totally knows what I’m saying:

Science of Art

On Building a Sustainable Practice in 15 hrs/Wk increments

As many of you know, for the past six months I have been building a sustainable studio practice. What I’ve been trying to build is something more like a map of how I actually work, and how the work I do could, conceivably, sustain itself financially within a year…

Read more

5 months ago · 27 likes · 11 comments · Shagun Singh

Looking after myself

Still getting over the ear infection, had to take some more antibiotics for that. But looking after myself, got back to the gym on Monday, feeling good.

My day job isn’t taxing me as much as it was six months ago. And I don’t feel the immediate urgency to leave now, which could be a good or a bad thing, because I’m not applying for other jobs. But my mindset has shifted and I’ve been given some more responsibilities at work which I enjoy doing, improving things, improving ways of working and stuff like that. So it’s keeping me occupied, and sometimes at lunch I do some drawing as well. I’ve been doing that quite regularly, which is good. It’s been really good.

But that’s it for now. Thank you so much for listening and or reading.

So that’s me for now, over and out,

SLART.

P.S. Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel

It’s been pretty non-stop, as it always is, because I can’t stop or won’t stop (I felt like Young Gunz when I said that). A life as an artist who’s working full time (In a techy day job) and has a family is busy, as you can imagine, or not, you might be living this life as well. I’m not complaining, I do moan about the rat race and I’ve started Project Rattloch and my weekly art practice (Which are the same thing) and many other things on this Substack before, that started off a series and kind of petered out.

I say this time, it may change, but I wanted to record my thoughts, upload it, raw, unedited on my Substack and then transcribe that as the post with my tweaks, just tidying it up a bit.

A secret project

So what’s been going on this week, I’ve launched a secret project which isn’t really secret. I don’t know why I’m not talking about it, but I don’t feel ready to share it yet and I think that’s fine. It’s beautiful the way art works and when you’re working on projects it takes different turns and something that you wouldn’t have expected like a month ago happens [effortlessly].

So it’s only been two, three weeks I’ve been working on this little side project and it’s not taking up much time at all and I wanted to test out a lot of ways of working and stuff and it’s been featured in a publication with, I can’t remember if it’s 30,000 subscribers or 300,000, but anyway I got a lot of attention through that and it’s not in my name, it’s in a pen name as well. I’m talking around it, but I do want to tell you what it is, and it’s not like it’s totally secret like doing a Banksy where no one knows who he is, it’s more I want to establish this first as a separate thing and then it’s just going to be linked as an art project from my usual work. But it involves selling art prints, using print on demand services and a certain way of drawing which is quite freeing and it’s really exciting, and you’ll know more about it soon don’t worry. So that’s been set up really quickly and unexpectedly from doing some lunchtime doodles so that’s been cool.

Getting back into fitness (AKA Witness The Fitness)

And I’ve been getting back into fitness as well and I know it’s not art related, but I wanted to update on that because I’ve always struggled with my weight and it’s been up and down and I’ve had a love-hate relationship with overeating and food, etc. and love-hate relationship with the gym, going for a bit and then thinking ‘what am I doing I don’t like the gym’ and then stopping. But I got into a good routine where I was going every morning, getting up at like half five, going for an hour, then doing the morning routine with family and then going to work, and it was working really well.

And then I got a bloody ear infection (not literally), and I think I probably got it from the gym or something, but the old me would give up after this setback, but I’m kind of raring to go back to the gym which is mad and it’s not happened before so I think something shifted.

I’m realising that although this gym stuff and health and fitness is not literally art related, it is [part of my wellbeing], because it’s the foundation of my health and the fitter I am the more I’m going to be able to paint and have stamina for painting and painting larger pictures and having more energy outside of my day job to do more. So I just wanted to say that really, that’s been pretty cool and I can’t wait to go back to the gym.

Studio updates with BRUT

And also BRUT has been cool with slowly ticking things off. We’re getting new stuff for the studio, got some plants in there, setting up some other events. I mentioned in one of my other posts we got the Salon of the Rejected coming up, I need to set a date for that, and we’ve got a mark making workshop, and then we have some 3D printing stuff as well from that 3D printer that we got given which was amazing.

Applying for a grant

And oh yeah I applied for a grant. So I posted in my last post about grants available because I was looking for grants myself, and I’ll share a post on the grants I was looking at. So I applied for the Unlimited one which is a sculpture project, and it would be easy for me to say I’ve never done sculpture before and not apply, but I just bit the bullet and did it.

So I’m looking at doing a memento mori piece based on my Time The Great Equaliser piece, but made into a 3D structure in the form of a sculpture and be placed in a sculpture park in Norwich which is in... I was going to say Middle East, it’s in East... an area called East Anglia. Not angular, is it angular? Is it angular? Angular... oh I feel like Jade Goody now because I remember she couldn’t pronounce East Anglia [in an interview back in the day]. What is it? It’s not Angular, that’s it for god’s sake, East Anglia. And I’ve got a link to that area as a kid because we used to go on holiday at Great Yarmouth every year so I thought I’d apply for that and see what happens.

First the funding to create the sculpture, get a fabricator to help you with that, and then have it in the sculpture park for a couple of years and then you can move it where you want to, so it’s got to be like bolted down. So I wanted it to come back to Swindon after that, and I encourage anyone to just go for something that’s out of your comfort zone. What’s the worst that can happen? The best that can happen is you get the grant funding and then you work out as you go, the worst is you don’t get it anyway. So yeah, go for those grants.

Painting at the studio

I did a little bit of painting at the studio recently. It’s really nice because we’ve had some funding for equipment for the studio, we’ve got benches, racks for the paintings, more easels, and we’ve got these trestle things. It’s funny isn’t it, you’re used to a way of working, but putting a big canvas on a trestle is a really nice way to paint rather than having it upright. Normally when I was painting bigger canvases they’d be on an easel upright, but painting on top of it you’ve got the whole view of the thing looking down and it’s quite nice to do that.

So I mixed some oils. I haven’t used oils for a while, but I put an oil base ages ago, a nice deep blue on a canvas, and then I’ve painted some figures in pink. I used Stuart Semple’s Pinkest Pink mixed with linseed oil and some white and red oil paints and shook it up, and it’s got a really nice texture to it. So that has been amazing, getting back to it, and even though I didn’t do it for very long, just getting in there and painting [It’s the main thing].

25 six foot canvases

And then there’s another project going on which I can’t say much about either. I don’t know what to say about it actually, other than it involves 25 six foot canvases and that’s all I’ll say about that. You can do digging if you want, I don’t know if you’ll find anything, but that is exciting and I think that’s about it for the week.

Substack schedule and Drei Fragen

So my plan is to do these every Wednesday, publish them on a Wednesday, and then it’s a nice mid-week post I think, and we have like the previous week’s updates.

And I was going to do Drei Fragen, the three questions for artists, but I haven’t stuck to that. I did bring it back, but then I stopped it again. So if anyone’s listening to this or reading this, please be my guest and come on Drei Fragen and answer the three questions, you’re absolutely welcome. But I haven’t got a regular schedule for that, but if it unfolds naturally and people send me their questions I’ll be happy to post them maybe, or fix those on a Monday or something.

But for now weekly posts are going to be on Wednesdays, my weekly art practice updates, also known as Project Rattloch.

So that’s me for now, over and out,

SLART.

P.S. in reply your comment about the pink piece WIP… voila!!!

‘Ere they are… Grants, prizes and paid residencies, each checked against the funder’s own page rather than a listings site. Deadlines are UK time unless I say otherwise. Most close this month; two run into 1 October and one has no deadline at all. Everything here is free to apply except MacDowell, Art Omi, Hayama and the Tom Stoddart Award, and I’ve listed those fees where they are.

Where to start

If you’re self-taught or your CV is thin: Art Omi states on its own page that it accepts self-taught professional artists. Hayama and Tokyo Biennale judge the work and the proposal rather than your credentials.

If you have a decade of shows behind you: Pollock-Krasner is the largest single sum here and needs ten exhibitions in ten years. Radcliffe, Platform Dalí and Ars Electronica also pay properly and enforce their eligibility rules to the letter.

If you hold a UK passport and no EU work rights: read the Ars Electronica entry before you start. It’s the one hard eligibility wall on this list.

If you need money rather than time: Radcliffe, Columbia, Unlimited, Ars Electronica, The Supporting Act and Pollock-Krasner put cash in your hand. MacDowell and Art Omi mostly give you space and food.

If you work with archives or documents: Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva and the European Cultural Foundation in Florence are built for it, and both will reject a general practice pitch.

If you’re a photographer: the Tom Stoddart Award is the one aimed squarely at you. Note that Pollock-Krasner explicitly excludes photography as a primary medium.

If you can’t travel: Unlimited, The Supporting Act and Pollock-Krasner can all be done from home. Unlimited covers England, Scotland and Wales only.

1. Platform Dalí, Barcelona

Residencies 2027, “What is real?” Fee paid, costs covered

Closes tonight, Monday 7 September, 10.59pm here (23.59 CET).

You get a EUR 7,500 fee plus a production budget of up to EUR 25,000 for a new work. Travel, accommodation, subsistence and insurance are covered for artists based outside Barcelona, within a set budget.

You need at least eight years of professional practice. Any nationality, any discipline, and collectives may apply, though the fee and budget are then shared.

Be aware this is a 12-month programme, not a short residency: a three-day introductory visit, up to 45 days on site, then roughly ten months of remote development and production. Five artists are selected, one at each of five partner institutions: the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, ICFO, the Institute of Marine Sciences, the Institute for High Energy Physics and the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park.

Worth it for the production budget, which is larger than most UK project grants. No scientific background is required and they say they welcome first-timers, so the eight years of practice is the only real gate.

Read the full call and apply

2. Harvard Radcliffe Institute

Radcliffe Fellowship 2027-28 Salary

Closes Thursday 10 September, 10pm here (5pm ET). Apply under Creative Arts.

You get a $78,000 stipend for the academic year plus $5,000 for project expenses, an office or studio in Byerly Hall, and a Harvard visiting fellow appointment. Relocation, housing and childcare funds exist but you may or may not be eligible, so don’t budget on them.

You need, in visual arts, at least five years of work as a professional artist, several curated group shows and at least two professional solo exhibitions. You must live in the Cambridge or Boston area from September to May. Anyone currently enrolled in a degree programme is ineligible, as are former Radcliffe fellows.

Be aware this is a heavy application: a 1,400-word proposal, a CV, twelve images and three letters of recommendation. Start the reference requests today or don’t start at all.

Worth it if the CV is there, and a wasted fortnight if it isn’t. Read the eligibility twice before you write anything.

Read the full call and apply

3. MacDowell, New Hampshire

Fellowships, spring and summer 2027 Time, board and help with travel

Closes Thursday 10 September at 5pm EDT, which is 10pm on Thursday here. Not the early hours of Friday. Check this one against the clock, because it closes earlier in the day than almost everything else on the list.

You get a studio and accommodation for a residency falling between 1 March and 31 August 2027. There are no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available.

You need only to be an artist. MacDowell takes applications from artists of all backgrounds and all countries across seven disciplines including visual arts, and about 300 fellowships are awarded a year.

Be aware the panels weigh three things: your record of professional achievement, a current work sample and your project proposal. It isn’t purely the work. Check the application fee on the guidelines page before you start, as the main page states only that there is no residency fee.

Worth it and fiercely competitive. It rewards a strong sample and a clear, specific proposal.

Read the full call and apply

4. Tsung-Yeh Arts and Cultural Center, Tainan, Taiwan

AIR in Tainan 2027 A fee, a flat, and a budget you don’t control

Closes Thursday 10 September, 4.59pm here (23.59 Taiwan time).

You get up to NT$30,000 a month for a maximum of three months, so NT$90,000 at most, roughly £2,200. Accommodation is a suite at no charge, plus a bicycle, an exhibition space, a shared studio and basic tools.

Read this carefully. The NT$150,000 materials budget is not paid to you. The centre procures materials and services itself through government process. Your grant is taxed, at 6 to 20% for foreign artists, plus health insurance contributions, and you pay a stamp duty of 0.1% in cash on top. Payment arrives in instalments on government reimbursement timelines, and they advise bringing NT$15,000 to 20,000 to cover your first month. Flights are not mentioned anywhere, so budget for your own.

You need a project responding to the 2027 theme, Site-Specific Art, engaging Tainan’s hydrology, physiography, ecology or local culture. Minimum 45 days, maximum 90, across three possible terms between January and August 2027. Basic English or Chinese. At least one signed letter of recommendation, uploaded before the system closes.

You must deliver one achievement exhibition and at least one parent-child workshop before you leave.

Worth it for three funded months in Taiwan with real production support behind you, as long as you go in understanding that the big number is a procurement budget rather than cash.

Read the full call and apply

5. Art Omi, New York

Artists residency 2027 Board and meals, travel possible

Closes Monday 14 September. The page gives no closing time, so file on Sunday.

You get a studio, a private room and all meals at no cost from Thursday 17 June to Monday 12 July 2027. This is a single fixed session, the only one they run each year, so you can’t pick your dates.

You need to have been professionally active for at least five years. Having studied art is not a requirement, and they say explicitly that they accept self-taught professional artists. Disciplines include visual arts, sound art, performance and social practice.

Fee $15.

On travel: several fellowships include a travel grant and a $500 stipend, and international applicants are automatically considered for the two Larkin Dawn fellowships without applying separately. The Every Page Foundation fellowship carries $2,000. So a flight may well be covered, but plan as though it isn’t.

Worth it, with eyes open on the odds. Art Omi aims for roughly 75% of residents to come from outside the US, which helps, but in 2026 they took 24 artists from around 1,395 applicants. There’s no public transport from the campus.

Read the full call and apply

6. Embassy of Foreign Artists, Geneva

Artistic research residency 2027 Stipend and a room, you pay travel and materials

Closes Tuesday 15 September. No time given.

You get CHF 1,400 a month for three months, roughly £1,250, as a daily allowance, plus a private room and shared common areas. Run with the Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism at the Geneva Graduate Institute, who provide access and guidance.

You need to be over 28 at the time of application, have a professional practice with a substantial body of work behind it, speak French or English, and not be enrolled in a basic art training programme. You must accept that travel and production costs are yours.

Your project must use the archives of Geneva-based international organisations as its primary resource, the UN Archives Geneva or the ICRC archives for example. This is the whole application, so a general practice pitch will sink.

Worth it if you already work with documents. Duos and groups can apply, but the stipend doesn’t increase.

Read the full call and apply

7. Unlimited

Partner Awards 2026/27 Project funding

Closes Monday 28 September, midday.

You get one of eleven awards from £15,000 to £40,000, £280,000 in total, each tied to a partner venue. Eight in England, two in Scotland, one of £20,000 in Wales. Visual art partners include the Sainsbury Centre, Scottish Sculpture Workshop and Creative Folkestone.

You need to be a disabled artist, or a disabled artist leading the creation of work within a disabled-led company, aged 18 or over, based in England, Scotland or Wales, and not in full-time education. Northern Ireland is not covered by this round.

Worth it as the biggest pot here for anyone who qualifies, and the only one you can do without leaving the country. Each award has its own page with its own eligibility and criteria, so pick your partner venue first. Guidance is available in audio, BSL, Easy Read and large print, in Gaelic for Scotland and Welsh for Wales, and they offer access support to apply.

Read the full call and apply

8. Ars Electronica

Ars Biologica ArtXScience residency, České Budějovice 2028 Fee and production

Closes Monday 28 September, 11pm here (midnight CET).

Check this before anything else: applicants may be of any nationality but must be eligible to work and travel in the EU. If you hold only a UK passport with no EU work rights, this one is closed to you.

You get EUR 24,000 in total: EUR 6,000 fee, up to EUR 15,000 production, up to EUR 3,000 for travel and subsistence. Accommodation for a one-month stay comes from a separate budget.

You need more than five years of professional practice and prior experience in interdisciplinary collaboration, art-science production and community engagement. 18 or over. Individuals or collectives.

They want two things, not one: a spatial artwork that goes beyond the screen, and public engagement formats involving the local community. The science partner is the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, working on soil and freshwater microorganisms.

Be aware of the commitment. Two positions only, running January 2027 to April 2028, with a month in February or March 2027, an optional month in August or September 2027, and a month in March 2028 for the festival.

Worth it for the production budget, and the first-round application is unusually light: a 250-word proposal, a few 100-word answers and some images.

Read the full call and apply

9. Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Paris

Fellowship 2027-28 Salary

Closes Wednesday 30 September. No time is given, so file the day before.

You get $75,000 for the academic year at Reid Hall in Paris, September 2027 to May 2028, with your own office, administrative and research support, and access to Columbia’s libraries and research facilities in Europe.

You need to apply under the creative arts category, be unaffiliated with Columbia, and, regardless of nationality, not be permanently resident in the United States. They cannot accommodate groups.

Be aware the cohort is up to 15 fellows and only half are outside artists and writers, so this is a handful of places. The application needs a 1,500-word project description, a work sample and three letters of recommendation.

Worth it as a year in Paris on a salary, if you can line up three referees in three weeks.

Read the full call and apply

10. European Cultural Foundation

Artistic Research Fellowship, Florence Costs covered

Closes Wednesday 30 September, 4pm here (17.00 CET).

You get EUR 10,000 for a research stay at the Historical Archives of the European Union, covering travel, accommodation, living costs and artistic production. You work at Villa Salviati, within the European University Institute’s scholarly community.

The subject is narrower than it looks. This is not general access to the EU archives. Fellows are expected to work substantially with the European Cultural Foundation’s own historical holdings, which opened to the public in June 2026, and to engage with ECF’s history, networks and ideas and what they say about culture in Europe now. Material is primarily in English, with a good deal in French, German and Dutch.

You must complete and publicly present or publish the outcome within two years of signing the grant agreement. That’s a binding condition, not a nice-to-have.

Worth it if archives are already your material and the ECF’s own story gives you something to work with.

Read the full call and apply

11. Tokyo Biennale, “Social Dive”

Site-responsive proposals, “From Me to Us” Costs covered, small honorarium

Closes Wednesday 30 September, 3.59pm here (23.59 JST).

You get a ¥100,000 honorarium, about £500, return travel to Tokyo up to ¥300,000, about £1,500, for one person only, accommodation in Tokyo, a project development budget capped at ¥200,000, about £1,000, plus interpretation and translation support and an invitation letter.

You need a proposal for one of eleven designated Tokyo sites, from temples and business districts to Ueno Station and Akihabara. Open to artists, curators, researchers and collectives, 18 or over, with no nationality or residence rules. One proposal per applicant, in English or Japanese.

Be aware of the timeline. Despite the name, the presentation period runs roughly 45 days between October and December 2028, and you must commit to a minimum one-month stay including the opening, on top of research visits and preparation beforehand.

Also note that by applying you agree your proposal may be published even if it isn’t selected, once it clears the first screening.

Worth it for the biennale line on your CV and the covered costs, but go in clear-eyed: £500 and a £1,000 budget against a month in Tokyo and two years of commitment.

Read the full call and apply

12. The Tom Stoddart Award for Excellence, with GOST Books

Long-form documentary photography A published book and £5,000

Closes Wednesday 30 September. The entry page displays 10.59pm, which appears to be UTC, so 11.59pm here. File the day before rather than test it.

You get a photobook produced by GOST Books, clothbound hardback and distributed worldwide, edited alongside GOST’s director Stu Smith. Plus £5,000 towards expenses, a trip to Verona to see the proofs and check them, publicity through The Guardian as media partner, and a run across the award’s own channels.

You need a long-form documentary project that is nearing completion and substantial enough to carry a book. 18 or over. Submit up to 40 representative images, a short biography and a concise project synopsis. No AI-generated imagery.

Fee £50 per entry.

Worth it if you have a body of work sitting unpublished. This is one of very few open calls where the prize is a real trade book rather than a group show, and the Guardian tie-in is worth as much as the money. Run by the Ian Parry Photography Grant, with Don McCullin as patron emeritus.

Read the full call and apply

13. Hayama Artist Residency, Japan

June 2027 Costs covered

Closes Wednesday 30 September, 11.59pm US Eastern, which is 4.59am on 1 October here.

You get a return flight to Narita or Haneda, a private bedroom in shared accommodation at Hôtel ami hayama for four weeks, 1 to 30 June 2027, and $800 for meals and local transport. Staff meet you at the airport.

You need to be a visual artist over 21, anywhere in the world, any medium. Applications in English only, via Submittable, and you can’t edit once submitted. Up to ten work samples.

Fee $95 for first-time applicants, waived if you apply again the following year after missing out.

Be aware they provide no art materials, you buy your own food from the $800, and visas are entirely your responsibility. No partners, family or pets.

Worth it for the flights, which almost nobody else here pays for. The distinctive thing is that you are not required to make any work at all: they recommend rest, research and reflection. If that’s what you need, nothing else on this list offers it.

Read the full call and apply

14. The Supporting Act Foundation

Artist Grant 2026 Unrestricted cash, no travel required

Closes Thursday 1 October, 10am here (11.00 CET). A morning deadline, so this one is effectively 30 September for practical purposes.

You get one of ten unrestricted grants of EUR 10,000, paid as EUR 1,000 a month across the year. No restrictions on how you spend it, though it’s intended for living costs and artistic development. Grantees also join a network with online events, workshops and peer exchange.

You need to identify as an emerging artist with between two and ten years of professional experience, be at least 21, and have a practice involving collaborative or community-focused creative processes. You must identify as belonging to one or more underrepresented groups, or as someone facing systemic barriers to equal opportunities in the arts. You must be based in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain or the UK, and hold an IBAN bank account in one of those countries.

Worth it as the rare grant that funds your life rather than a project. Monthly instalments rather than a lump sum is the point: it buys twelve months of not panicking. Free to apply.

Read the full call and apply

15. Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant

Grants for artists The biggest sum here, and no deadline

No deadline. Applications are open year-round on a rolling basis. Expect the review to take nine to twelve months, so apply now and forget about it.

You get an unrestricted grant of up to $50,000, though most land around $35,000, intended to cover a year. The amount is set by your circumstances, and you state what you’re asking for and why in a one-page cover letter.

You need to work primarily in painting, sculpture or works on paper including printmaking, and to have a minimum of ten exhibitions in the past ten years at professional galleries, museums or recognised exhibition spaces, while actively exhibiting now. That is the hard bar.

Not eligible: students, and anyone working primarily in photography, video or film, performance, graphic or commercial art, illustration, craft, or generative and AI-generated work. Craft here means functional objects: jewellery, clothing, pottery, furniture. A small video or photographic component within a painting or sculpture is fine.

Be aware the application is exacting and will be disqualified for getting the details wrong. Ten JPEGs at exactly 2100 pixels on the longest side, named to their format, a matching image list, an artist statement, a CV with solo and group shows separated, and three professional references. Two-person collaborations only. One application every 24 months, and if you’re declined you wait two years.

Worth it as the largest unrestricted sum available to a painter or sculptor anywhere on this list, decided on merit rather than need, with grantees in more than 80 countries. Free to apply. If you clear the ten-exhibition bar, there is no reason not to.

Read the full call and apply

Cheers me dears,
SLART

“True art is always found where we least expect it, where nobody thinks about it or utters its name.”

— Jean Dubuffet, L’Art brut préféré aux arts culturels, 1949

Art was least expected to be found in a scruffy but stunning glass building in the Western suburbs of Swindon.

Enter Studio BRUT

My view of how it all went as a co-founder:

We had the opening of Studio BRUT in Swindon, Wiltshire, on the 15th of August 2026, and it was overwhelmingly positive. I must admit, a couple of days before I was very stressed about it. I felt like there was too much to do. But I got a lovely group of people to help me finish what needed to be done, and it worked out in the end.

I got there early to help the DJ set up. I briefed my niece on how to use the card machine and get donations for drinks and artwork. There were a couple of journalists in there waiting[1], they came around a bit earlier, and they interviewed me while the people poured in. Then all of a sudden there were 100 people there at least.

I’m just really surprised at how calm and confident I felt. I had the most clarity I’ve ever had in that kind of situation. It was as if I was meant to be there. It’s hard to explain. It just felt natural, let’s put it that way. It felt natural that I was there, doing what I was doing. I dropped the shy little boy that held me back in so many situations like that.

I had interviews with a couple of local media outlets and radio[2], and chatted with so many people. It was non-stop talking all night. People came up to me, and as soon as someone finished talking to me, someone else had grabbed me. And it didn’t feel stressful. The only thing I was a bit stressed about, not stressed about, but I wanted to speak to more people and I didn’t get a chance to. There were some people I invited that I just wanted to chat to, and I didn’t get to, because there was so much going on.

The first half an hour flew by. Everyone came in, and then there was time for the speeches. I got the people together myself: Dr Rod Hebden from Swindon Culture Collective, and Claire Garrett, who is the Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire and a fabulous social entrepreneur as well, and then the local mayor, Neil Hopkins, Swindon Mayor.

I opened up saying how grateful I was for people to be there. Not in a false way. I said that your presence means a lot, and just being here tonight is not nothing, it’s more. I said that you chose to be here tonight, you could be doing anything else, and you chose to be here, and it means a lot to me.

Then I went into the ideas behind it, and I said a couple of rules for the evening. I said to drink lots of beer, and I didn’t get any laughs at all. And then I said spend more time with the paintings than feels natural to you. Just spend a bit more time and see what unfolds. Because with social media these days we glance at things and we scroll through things, and it doesn’t have a second thought really. So I encourage that, and I always will do now. And then I said photography and video is encouraged: the more that people take photos and share, the more it gets the word out.

And then the event was open. The mayor usually cuts a ribbon. I had no ribbon or scissors, so I tied a piece of cloth to the door, and it just looked a bit tacky, and the mayor didn’t cut it in the end. It’s fine. But I opened the studio doors, and people started looking around the studio part of it as well.

Just after the speeches, I had a massive surprise from my siblings who live in Margate, Kent, which is a really cool arts place actually. They drove down three hours to come and see the exhibition. In the morning of that day they all wished me luck with the exhibition and I was really moved by that, and then they ended up turning up to the event. I was just over the moon. It meant the world to me. It really did.

The night carried on. We got lots of donations, we had a fabulous time, and it was just bustling, and lots of chat with all those different people. Then it starts to quieten down about half eight, and a few latecomers turned up, my close friend Charlie. The vibe totally changed and it was very chill. There were probably about 15, 20 people, and then it dwindled down to about 10, and we came to a natural end just around nine o’clock instead of half nine, which was actually fine.

The only thing I would say about the location: it’s fine, and it’s a gorgeous, gorgeous building, but it’s not in the town centre. If it was in the town centre there could be more scope for doing it a bit later, and people partying a bit more. But it’s absolutely fine. It’s creating its own thing out of town, and it’s serving that community in the Peatmoor area of Swindon.

So I was absolutely over the moon with the exhibition, and then we kept on with the momentum. I spoke to BBC Wiltshire on the Sunday for some sound bites, and then on the Monday morning to say how it went[3]. I spoke a bit about Quentin Blake, how he messaged. I contacted him and he sent his best wishes. He said he couldn’t attend. He’s 93 now, bless him. I don’t know how much he gets about, and I’m not too sure where he lives as well, it’s quite a way to go.

And the press has kept rolling: interviews, photographs, more emails than I can keep up with[4]. It has been genuinely exciting, and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t.

But a conversation this week put all of it back in its proper place. I was chatting with Helen Downie, whose work I have admired for years, and we ended up agreeing that successes like this are lovely, but it always comes back to the enjoyment of creating the work. Everything else, as she put it, is a kind of noise.

That one is staying with me. The press, the mayor, the full room: all wonderful jubilant noise. The making of art is the thing.

On the Monday a good friend, Fenella Rouse, came to see the space, so I got to give her a private tour. She kindly bought some postcards and stuff. She couldn’t make it on the opening, and I said on Monday I’m going to the studio, why don’t you pop down, come along and see what it’s all about. It was a real pleasure to show her around.

So yeah, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. And the next steps are having this open call for the next group exhibition. It’s open to Wiltshire based or working local artists, outsiders, if you want to showcase your work.

So yeah. Let’s do the next thing.

Salon des Refusés…

Watch this space!

——————————————————————————

THANK YOU

None of this happened alone. The opening night ran on generosity:

Swindon Culture Collective and Hypha Studios, who made the space possible. Cass Art and CREATE Education Project, backing the studio and the free makerspace to come. Arkell’s and Tap Social Movement, who stocked the bar between them (Tap Social’s beer arrived two days before opening, driven up from Oxford). Flawsome! Drinks, for the soft options. WillSecure, who kept the door safe for free. Bert’s Books, flying the flag. And Gideon Liddiard, who photographed the whole night: every picture in this post is his.

“These artists derive everything from their own depths, and not from the conventions of classical or fashionable art.” Dubuffet

——————————————————————————

FOOTNOTES

[1] Swindon24 came along and wrote it up two days later: “Underused Swindon building transformed into new outsider art studio” (16 August 2026). https://www.swindon24.co.uk/news/underused-swindon-building-transformed-into-new-outsider-art-studio/

[2] Before the night, Dave Franklin previewed us in The Swindonian: “Self-taught Swindon artists open town’s first outsider art studio and gallery” (22 July) https://theswindonian.co.uk/culture/self-taught-swindon-artists-open-towns-first-outsider-art-studio-and-gallery/ , Rhona Jack wrote about us in her INK Magazine culture column, online at The Ink (30 July) https://theinkswindon.substack.com/p/all-systems-go-for-swindon-city-of , and Mike Buss announced the night on Entertainment Swindon (14 August) https://entertainmentswindon.co.uk/2026/08/14/swindon-mayor-to-open-swindons-first-professional-art-studio-for-outsider-artists/

[3] BBC Radio Wiltshire had us on across the opening weekend: live from the studio on the Saturday morning, sound bites on the Sunday, and a how-did-it-go chat on the Monday. I’ll try my best to locate the recordings.

[4] Raw Vision, the world’s outsider art magazine since 1989, featured the opening in their weekly newsletter the week before we opened, with a piece in the September print magazine to come.

This was the week of asking.

Somewhere in the last month I stopped thinking of letters as admin and started thinking of them as part of the practice. Every invitation to the opening night is a tiny artwork with one collector… the person who opens it (Corny I know). Some get framed in memory, most get binned, and a few come back to you in ways that move you.

Here’s the one that moved me…

The earthworm comes home

In 1993 I was eleven, and I drew an environmentally friendly earthworm for a national children’s competition run by Friends of the Earth. The judges were Raymond Briggs and Quentin Blake. I was one of ten winners in the whole country. The Marlborough Times took my photo, and my mum told the paper she hoped my love of drawing was “a talent which can be fostered.” See below for the full story…

Thirty three years later, three weeks before opening a gallery, I wrote to Quentin Blake to tell him what became of the boy with the earthworm.

His office wrote back. With a message from the man himself, which I have now read roughly forty times:

“What you have to do is to just start drawing, even if you think perhaps that you don’t do it well – you probably are doing something of interest. Start to draw and find out what happens. And, I will mention this in the hope that it may be of some encouragement, I have no professional qualifications at all!”

I have no professional qualifications at all. Quentin Blake. If outsider artists ever needed a patron saint, he just applied for the job in writing. That last line is going on our wall at the opening, and honestly it might go on the door.

Mum was right to hope. The full story is on the gallery blog: studiobrut.art/quentin-blake-wrote-back

The cheeky email that worked

Harrie messaged me on a Sunday evening:

‘what if we find a sponsor to give us a 3D printer?’

I replied with the full weight of my strategic planning:

‘sure, I’ll send some emails.’

So I sent a slightly cheeky one to a company in Chorley called the CREATE Education Project, and instead of a polite no, a man called Chris offered us a printer off their own demo fleet. It’s being boxed up as I write this. When it arrives, it goes to work in our free workshops, and its first print will be, if I have anything to do with it, an environmentally friendly earthworm.

The formal complaint

Asking gets addictive. This week I also wrote to Joe Lycett, and because he’s turned the complaint letter into an art form, I opened with one: a formal complaint that he’s opening a free exhibition in Birmingham seventeen days before we open a free gallery in Swindon, and at no point were we consulted. I informed him that we intend to formally blame him for the movement. When I say it out lout it’s not really funny, but hopefully gets his attention with a ‘WTF?!’

I’ve written to a Colour World Genius. I’ve written to Gilbert & George, who spent fifty years saying Art for All before we borrowed the idea and built it beside a lagoon. I’ve written to people who will never reply (Like Sir Mccartney), and the letters were still worth writing, because every single one made me say out loud what this gallery is for. Try explaining your practice to forty strangers in one week. It’s better than art school anydayy.

Studio BRUT, three weeks out

The building has started introducing it’s self, speaking up. We put our aerial photograph online this week, the glass roof beside the lagoon, and I drew a red ring around our unit like a treasure map, because that’s what it is. There are now what3words directions on the visit page (///jump.ever.corner, honestly) and a wall of quotes slowly assembling from artists who’ve sent us a line of support. The Mayor is opening the night. The Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire is coming too. It’s becoming the event of the year!

And the Outsider art field guide grew. What started as 46 Outsider artist biographies is now 154, every self-taught artist ever shown at the Outsider Art Fair, each with their own page. If you’ve ever fallen down a rabbit hole about a hospital patient who drew the universe in ballpoint, It’s probably in the list studiobrut.art/outsider-art

3 weeks til opening night, and you are invited. Saturday 15 August 2026, 6.30 to 9.30pm, at Arclite House, Century Road, Peatmoor, Swindon SN5 5YN. Free entry, pay what you can, with half of all donations going to the charity Hypha Studios. Come and see the work, have a drink, and say hello.

Bye for now,

SLART

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Last week I asked what peace of mind feels like in a space. This week my foot decided I should find out by becoming all gouty again, so movement has mee limited and rest has been the order of the day.

So, as I said last update, I have been recording voice notes to myself. They were all taken a week or so ago, but I was without my phone for a few days, so they are only landing now. Listening back, they document an artwork coming into the world. Here they are, tidied up just enough to read. The headings are wherever I was when I pressed record.

Brinkworth Road, Tuesday 23 June

I am recording these so I can document my journey as an artist and what I have been thinking about. I have realised a lot of the artist’s work is done before the actual creation of the art. I am enjoying mulling over different aspects of it, joining the dots by thinking about it for a long time, and then I get to the point where I am antsy and I need to make it into physical reality.

In terms of my project, I am trying to answer this question: what would an individual calming space feel like? I do not know if that is the question. I need to work at a better question. But I am starting with the actual framework of the individual space. I have bought some 20mm electrical tubing, which is plastic and hollow, and some corner connectors. It cost about £27 to make, technically, a three metre cubed cube. That is going to be far too big for what I am starting out with, so I am going to chop it up. I will probably do 180 by 180 and save the rest for a smaller cube, or an oblong.

The cube is going to be the individual space, the individual experiential artwork, enjoyed from the outside and the inside. That is a new thing that has come to me: you want it to look right on the inside and the outside, not just the inside. So it will most probably have lights inside it. When it is in a gallery space you will be able to see the cubes and the light. And it is going to have a comfy chair inside.

I realise when I am talking out loud it does not always feel as clear as when I am thinking to myself. But let me go through some of the things I was thinking about yesterday in terms of materials. I have mentioned the tubing, and I have been looking at linen, chiffon and lace as ways to cover the cube structure, and some kind of nice flooring underneath. Having a separate floor is going to give it an extra sensory feel, rather than just the bare studio floor. I was also thinking about layering. Lace curtains with loops in, so they can be fed across the poles and pulled back for an entranceway. And layering plastic on the outside, so there is a kind of frosted glass effect.

When I ponder over these materials to make this calm individual space, it is all speculation. It is nice joining the dots, seeing things in the world and thinking this will work. But you cannot actually know until it is physically built and you are experiencing the space. So how I am going to approach it is: create a first iteration. The blank canvas of the space. The cube structure and some kind of outer covering layer, so it becomes an individual space in itself. Then, when I can sit inside there and feel it, I can intuit and decide what should be added. Each new piece will be an iteration of that.

The good thing about these spaces is that they can be disassembled quite easily and put together in different places. I could set up a space, pack it away, and document that as piece number one, or whatever the title will be. I might just do Space One, Space Two, Space Three. I do not know yet.

I have also had some thoughts around geodesic domes, and a tunnel shape. I am getting these ideas from things used on allotments, the little structures people put netting over to stop snails and insects getting at their cabbages. The tubing I have seen is similar to what they use. There are so many different directions this can go in. But I am keeping one thing in the back of my mind: it is not about being a beautiful space, and it is not about being a perfectly architectured or designed space either. It is the experimentation of something I am very curious about, which is an individual space that lets in a state of no mind. I do not know if that is possible. But we all know that spaces affect the way we feel. Right now I am driving through the countryside, windy lanes, trees, grass, birds flying around. Blue sky helps. The sun helps. Very different to driving through a busy city in hard rain, late for work.

I have always been curious about the idea of an individual sleep pod. Supposedly used by Google, though I do not know if that is true or a PR myth about how compassionate a company can be. The idea appeals to me because I get very overwhelmed, and having permission to have a power nap would transform people’s lives if we allowed it. We are stuck in this notion of pushing through and normalising being exhausted. So these spaces might grow to be more than individual spaces, but I feel they have to be individual for now, because that seems to be where you have no distractions from anyone else and you can focus on your own thoughts. Or focus on the lack of them. Just being. It is not just a meditation space. It is the whole experience taken into account.

I have just got a strong feeling in my stomach about it. I am really excited about setting up this first cube and having this real structure that I have made, standing in a room. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But we forget that we can think about something and then make it. We lose sight of that all the time.

And I am looking forward to going to Scrap Store. I do not know if it is a regional thing, but in Swindon there is a place called Scrap Store. Businesses donate surplus stock and it is sold affordably, and a big part of it is creative materials. It is about £40 a year to join, and there is a section where you can fill up a shopping trolley for free, something like five metres of material every month, plus affordable paints. I am sure I will have an update on that.

I am going to take photos of my bare cube. I am going to sit in my bare cube and see how I feel, and document that. Then I am going to sit in my cube covered, and see how I feel about that. And I have decided I do not want an interchangeable outer shell, because I want each artwork to have its own space and its own feeling. Other people will have different feelings, and that is fine. I am gauging it by how I feel, sat in the space that I create.

A tangent about helium, Tuesday 23 June

I have had a very curious day, going off on tangents about materials and directions of scale. Making smaller cubes with a light source inside, as a public art piece. And then that moved on to my curiosity about helium. How much helium do you need to lift certain objects? Science people can correct me on this, but from what I read it is roughly one to six: helium can lift about six times its own weight, including the weight of the helium itself. So if I wanted to lift six kilograms, I would need a kilogram of helium in a balloon, which would obviously be a huge balloon. I was working out how much helium I would need in one cubic metre. I do not need a floating cube. I want one, though.

Purton, Tuesday 23 June

I have come to realise, as you know, that I am not a man of science. I have never been inclined to use the scientific method. I was not interested in science at school, and I did not do very well. I saw it as a boring subject rather than a curious one.

But since I set the limitation of putting my focus on the square spaces, an internal individual space, it has gone off on many tangents, and one of them was looking at how much helium could lift, and putting that into practice in a cube shape that lives outside. And it has made me think about iterations, having insights, doing experiments, testing hypotheses. I always saw that as quite a rigid act, and in some respects it is. But within that rigidity you have creativity, trying different things you would never have thought of until you took certain steps and failed. That sounds obvious if you are an engineer or a scientist. It is baked into your psyche from a young age. I never had that foundation. I have always been scatterbrained, flitting between things. But I am starting to see the value of the scientific method for testing things as an artist, and I find it incredibly exciting. I cannot tell you how much, because it opens up unlimited avenues for my art.

I pretty much had that before, when I was doing expressionist paintings. I have always got something to share from my personal experiences and from what is happening in the world. But this has a new focus. Rather than focusing on the world itself, it is this tiny segment: how materials behave, how spaces create feelings. Or rather, how people interpret spaces, and how that in turn creates feelings and associations. I am incredibly excited.

Screwfix car park, Wednesday 24 June

So, fucking hell. I have got to this point where I am thinking, what am I doing with my life? I have just been to Screwfix for my ten three metre tubes for the first cube structure, and it is boiling hot today, about 38 degrees. I came thinking they would be neatly tied up. The guy comes out with ten loose tubes, and I am trying to get them in the car, pissing around trying to fit them in, back seat down, and I finally squeeze them in. They are literally on the dashboard at one end and bent over in the boot at the other. My wife would see these tubes in the car and say, what the hell are you doing with those?

It just makes me laugh, the things I end up doing. Obviously I am really into this project, and this is the first stage of the physical manifestation of the ideas, and I will have to do silly shit like this. I thought it was quite funny to say out loud. I bought a little hacksaw as well, so I can start cutting them down. A three metre cube is a bit too much, and it would be wobbly. But the tubing is pretty good for what it is, and I am excited to play around with it.

Westcott Place, Wednesday 24 June

Recorded a few hours after Screwfix. It runs to nearly three minutes and the only words the transcript could find in it are: Jesus Christ. I have no memory of what prompted it. I am keeping it. It might be the truest artist’s statement I have ever made.

The B4014, Thursday 25 June

Popped by the studio and dropped off the poles. Ten times three metre poles, and I am looking forward to building the structure now. It is slowly coming from my mind into reality, and again, that is just such an amazing thing. It is magic.

Space One, first iteration. Diary, day one, Friday 26 June

This entry exists as a voice note, recorded sat inside the cube. You can listen to it as it happened:

First cube structure built, and I feel really satisfied. It got quite stressful, because I estimated a measurement instead of using the measuring tape, and it is not quite even. But this is my first one, and the cube looks great.

I am writing down my feelings sitting in the structure. At the moment I am feeling pride, and the pride is blocking any other sensation. But aside from that, the best I can gauge sat inside the cube structure is: it feels empty. Of course it is empty. But you can feel the presence of something there. There is a beginning of something, and you feel like you are in the space. Saying this out loud sounds obvious, but it is very different from just sitting in a room. This is what I am talking about: changing part of a room into a separate space. An artwork which is examining, hypothesising, a space that brings peace.

I keep changing the question, but it is around the calmer end of the spectrum. What I mean by that is, I could make a whizzy space, lots of lights and noises and screens and interactions, something that grabs the brain and shakes it. This is the opposite. Getting away from the mind. Being mindless, in the good sense. A sense of peace where you can forget about everything, not in a distracting way, in a calming way. That is step one of my diary.

Meanwhile, the rest of Studio BRUT

While my foot kept me on the sofa, Harrie and I have also been launching the Studio Brut website, and it has been a big week for it. The blog you are reading is live, with writing from both of us. The artist directory is open, and the first artist has already signed up, which made our week. Harrie announced The Brut List, her plan to make Swindon’s outsider artists impossible to ignore.

What happens next?

Photos of the bare cube. Then the covered cube, and the difference between the two, documented. A trolley run at Scrap Store. And the question that will not leave me alone, getting slowly better at being asked: what does an individual calming space feel like? Or What does peace of mind within a space feel like?

I am building the answer one little experiment at a time.

A huge shoutout to Swindon Culture Collective and Hypha Studios for your support with this space.

One more update before I go. Harrie Dearing and did launch the full Studio BRUT website, so check it out at studiobrut.art, with a blog, an open directory for self-taught and outsider artists, and documenting everything we are building.

We are also throwing an opening night, and you are invited. Saturday 15 August 2026, 6.30 to 9.30pm, at Arclite House, Century Road, Peatmoor, Swindon SN5 5YN. Free entry, pay what you can, with half of all donations going to the charity Hypha Studios. Come and see the work, have a drink, and say hello.

Bye for now,

SLART

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I looked up at a ceiling recently and noticed a single cobweb stretched across it. There was a spotlight above it, lighting up the middle section. It looked beautiful. I stared at it for a few minutes before catching myself.

It got me thinking about my first space that I will create.

How could I recreate that feeling of the light on top of cobweb? Maybe I could wrap wool around each of the five sides of the cube. It would still feel like a room, but the light would shine through it. The space would feel enclosed, but not completely blocked off to the outside.

I’m really enjoying the idea that all parts of my life can become part of the art. It’s like Miyamoto Musashi said:

“Do nothing which is of no use.”

Art doesn’t have to be something I only “do” in my spare time. It is more about who I am. How I think. It is a way of looking at everything.

Use your life experiences. Use the mundane parts. Use the things that happen during an ordinary, boring, bog-standard day.

The fuller quote from Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings says:

“Become acquainted with every art.
Know the Ways of all professions.
Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.
Pay attention even to trifles.
Do nothing which is of no use.”

That feels very relevant to this project.

My mind is constantly looking for materials now. I came across a roll of industrial absorbent paper and started wondering if it could work as a material, but it is about £50 for a box. It is basically strong tissue, so that feels too expensive for what it is, although the light does shine through its pinholes beautifully.

Then my mind moved on to fairy lights. I can get a net of fairy lights for around £25, which is cheaper than a lot of natural materials I could use to cover the cube. For the first version, I need to keep it low cost for obvious reasons. I have no real budget.

Now I’m thinking about smaller cubes as points of interest, almost like street art. Imagine coming across a random illuminated cube somewhere. You would stop for a moment and wonder what it was.

That idea is slightly separate from the main space idea, but it still connects in my mind. I’m following my curiosity, and I’m excited by where it is going.

My first cube space structure has come into form

I recorded a load of voice notes around this project last week, but I can’t access them at the moment due to not being able to charge my phone. I won’t lie, it’s been a welcomed sense of peace from a device that takes most of my attention. But when it’s back in action, I will share more.

After collecting the 3m tubes from the hardware shop, I went over to the studio and gingerly created my cube structure that will house the first art space. I clam up when doing any kind of DIY, I must have some kind of strong belief that I can’t do it. But I ignore that notion as false and went ahead and made it anyway.

Here is how it looked in a timelapse.

After I completed the cube, I sat on a cushion inside of it and documented how I felt. This was one of those temporarily lost voice notes. In short, I noticed that it became a separate space of its own, separate to the room, but it felt incomplete. This seems obvious when I said it out loud, however, it’s noticing the beginnings of how it feels as a space and will evolve over time as the project progresses.

Keep in touch with Studio BRUT. Connect with us on Instagram if you are on there.

We are also creating an outsider artist directory, so please fill in this form if you are interested. It is free.

A huge shoutout to Swindon Culture Collective and Hypha Studios for your support with this space.

Bye for now,
SLART

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If you’re new here, I’m an outsider artist, documenting my art journey whilst navigating full-corporate bullshittery work.

Over the past couple of months, I have been applying for remote and hybrid job roles, as my current role is 5 days a week in the office. This is the first part of my lifestyle change, as well as working in a new studio and evolving my art practice.

The tally now is, 5 jobs with more than 1 interview, all turned out as rejections, but there’s still a few opportunities hovering about and I should have interviews next week. I must have applied to well over 80 jobs in total.

So this week, I have decided to delete the Substack app and I am not writing any Substack “capital N” Notes for a long while.

We are a product of our environment. In other words, we are a product of what we observe, experience, say, listen to and imbibe.

For the past few weeks, probably longer, I have been getting royally frigged off with posts that tell you how to win at Substack. The only thing I want to win at is art.

The more I come across posts that offer advice, the more I feel inclined to act on that advice, and the more likely I am to waste a lot of time in the process.

If you comment on this post, I probably will not reply to it for a while. Nothing personal. I just need to get out of the platform mind suck and focus on my new art space, which I think is going to be life changing.

Time is so precious. We forget how much so. It is not just the wasting of time itself. It is the frivolity of our relationship with time. It is the way these platforms take away the precious headspace we all crave. It’s the frazzled feeling we get when we feel like there’s not enough hours in the day.

I cannot be consumed with how-to Substack posts any longer. I cannot be consumed with advice, tactics, hacks, platform etiquette, note strategies, growth loops, optimisation threads, or any other digital breadcrumb trail that takes me away from the actual thing I love.

I am quitting the platform noise.

So for now, I will share my words with you from my laptop, slowly and carefully, probably written while at my day job, or while sitting somewhere that reminds me why my art and writing matters. Maybe one day, my daughter will read my posts and get to see another side of her old man.

Every now and again, I think I need to see flowing water in my life.

My mind has been so busy for so long. I am tired. Properly tired.

I am sitting on a sofa in my new studio right now, looking out of the window. I can see gravel, rocks, grass and trees. Beyond that, there is a lagoon. The water is moving from left to right. There is a pagoda in the distance as well.

The movement of the water is calming me down.

We have had this new studio for about three weeks now and are still setting it up. Still moving things in. Still working out what it is, what it can become, and how to use it properly. I do not think I have really had time to appreciate what a gift it is yet.

I want this place to become a genuine working space. A place where I spend far more time painting larger works, testing ideas and making things that might go nowhere, for me.

Last week I was talking about Robert Irwin.

I have been listening to Robert Irwin, reading about his work, and thinking about him a lot. I keep accidentally saying Robert Irving, but I mean Robert Irwin.

What has pulled me in is not just the work itself, but the way it seems to investigate perception, space, atmosphere and the experience of being somewhere.

And that has got something moving in me.

I have this questions in my head:

What would a peaceful individual space look like?

What would a small calming space feel like?

What would it feel like to be inside a rhubarb and custard sweet?

What kind of space could actually transform your mood into something closer to serenity?

I do not want to become a chair designer. That is not the point. This is not furniture design. It is not interior design.

You get designers who design chairs. Those chairs are comfortable and they might go in certain spaces. But my idea is not just a thing that sits inside a space. My idea is the individual space itself.

A small individual space. A seat inside it. Lighting. Smells. Colour. Privacy. A contained atmosphere. Something that has a calming effect, or maybe not.

Maybe it comes from the same part of me that likes the idea of sleep pods. Apparently Google has sleep pods, whether that is true or not. What interests me is not the corporate part, but the idea of an individual space where a person can rest, and maybe just be. And by jove, we need that now more than ever.

I am a big proponent of power naps, even though they are not exactly encouraged at my day job.

It would not be a glossy bit of office furniture. It would be more expressive. Rudimentary. Non-commercial. Individual.

An experiential piece.

Now that I have the bigger art space, the studio space, I actually have room to explore this properly. The starting point is simple. Make it as light as possible so it can be transported, and make sure it has a comfortable seat inside it.

The first step is probably just to build the box. Make the structure first, then work out what goes inside it. Maybe it has a canvas outer layer that I can paint onto. Maybe it uses translucent material. Maybe it uses fabric. Maybe it uses something I have not thought about yet.

The studio itself has big windows and lots of light, so maybe the best place to begin is with that light. The light can be filtered through something private, so you cannot see the person in there, but coloured light can still come in.

This interests me, excites me!

A space that protects you, but does not shut the world out completely.

The documentation part is important too. I am not a man of science. I am not that way inclined. But I am excited by the process of documenting the experiments. Notes, sketches, photographs, voice memos, mistakes, tests and half-formed thoughts can all become part of the work.

This post is part of that documentation.

A record of the idea the thought process, I don’t often do that, but it’s all part of the art.

Maybe that is also why I needed to delete the Substack app.

Because this needs my headspace.

Right now, the water is still moving from left to right outside. The pagoda is still in the distance. My mind is less busy than when I began. And the questions are sitting with me in the studio.

What would a small calming space feel like?

And could I make one? Fuck yeH!

Could I build a space that gives someone, even for a few minutes, the feeling the flowing water is giving me now?

Now, the space itself…

Presenting to you, Studio Brut.

Studio Brut is coming very soon. Lot of gorgeous natural light and lots of space.

It’s an outsider art collaboration, a new studio, a fresh start for both of us. They’ll be exhibitions, residencies and other events coming up very soon, watch this space.

Connect with us in Instagram if you’re on there.

You can also read more from my partner in crime on this project, Harrie Dearing, on her blog.

A huge shoutout to Swindon Culture Collective and Hypha Studios for your support.

Bye for now,

SLART

It’ll be worth it, I promise.

If you’re new here, I’m SLART, a British Outsider Artist documenting my journey and art practice.

I’ve recently got a new studio space (more on that soon) and I’m restructuring my employment model from full time office to either hybrid or remote, I work full time in a tech job you see, it’s paying the bills. I’m trying to see the positive side where I can create art freely without fear of making ends meet.

On Friday 5th, I had an interview for a “Web and Growth Engineer” role which had flexible working options. A good sign was that they approached me on LinkedIn initially. I had a chat with HR first, then a chat with VP of Marketing and then a group call that included me presenting my growth plans for 20 mins then 40 mins Q and A.

I feel like I held my own, I was not perfect by all means, but I gave it my best shot. By the time my next post rolls round here, you’ll know if I’m a “Web and Growth Engineer” so send positive vibes ✨

The Art Practice Bit

I’m grateful to have stumbled across the work of . His essays have resonated with me and has got me thinking in terms of exploration rather than pandering to what’s en vogue, or looks ‘sellable’. Not that I do that, but I feel like, with the new studio, I’d like to evolve my art practice. Blackbird Rook recommended a book by Lawrence Weschler - Titled: ‘Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Expanded Edition’

It’s a biography of the late artist, Robert Irwin and its recommended as one of the best art books.

I’m only 20 pages in so far, but from what I can grasp, Irwin was a strong willed individual who was independent from a young age. What stood out was his emotional security.

His art practice, I can’t say much as yet, but from what I’ve seen in videos is that he was a great experimenter, who used spaces that exist to create art within. It’s got me thinking outside of painting, as much as I adore painting, there’s a whole wider world out there that could be explored.

“Art in a sense is a continual inquiry into the potential of human beings to perceive and know the world with an aesthetic bias”

Robert Irwin

mentions in this video below, some examples of using your studio as a laboratory and your art as the experiment. I’m not a man of science but this way of working piqued my interest.

One example he give was (paraphrasing) “How can I depict the feeling of a spring morning?”. Using your own curiosity to use art as a way of thinking and experimenting, rather than through expression alone as I have done previously. It goes without saying, there’s no right way ‘to art’, but I’m excited about taking things in a different direction.

I said last week that I’d come back with a polished structure but that was never going to happen in 7 days. My intention now is for my practice to unfold into a natural structure that works for me, including the new space in that.

See you next week. Feel free to tell me about your art practice in the comments.

Bye for now.

SLART

If you’d like to support me…

This week's featured artist is a close friend, fellow office plankton, peer, muse, buddy and fellow outsider, Gio Manveli.

It’s been a real pleasure to see his art practice blossom over the 4 years I’ve known him.

1. What first sparked your interest in creating art?

Honestly, boredom.

As a kid I drew a lot, before adult life happened. School, work, family, pretending to be a proper adult. For years I barely touched a paintbrush.

Then in my thirties I moved abroad, found myself staring at white walls in a new apartment, and somehow ended up painting again. It started as a way to switch my brain off after work. No big moment and desire to shake art world. No spiritual awakening either. Just paint, canvas, and a desperate need to think about something other than spreadsheets and meetings.

The funny part is that what started as a hobby slowly became the thing I cared about most.

2. What are your regrets?

The obvious one: not starting earlier.

But if I’m honest, I probably wasn’t ready earlier.

My bigger regret is spending too much time worrying about what other people would think. Whether a painting was “good enough.” Whether I was a “real artist.” Whether I had my own style yet.

The irony is that nobody was thinking about me nearly as much as I imagined.

Most growth happened when I stopped caring about what people say in comments to my art and started making work that genuinely interested me - even if it confused people, looked weird, or failed completely. My moto is “Go cringe and see what happens”.

I still make plenty of mistakes. I’ve just become more efficient at making them.

3. What wisdom would you offer someone beginning their art career, or exploring art for the first time at any stage in life?

Make more bad art.

Seriously.

Most people spend years trying to avoid making bad work, which is exactly why they never make good work.

Your first paintings will disappoint you. Your tenth probably will too. Maybe your hundredth. That’s normal. The gap between your taste and your ability is actually a good sign—it means you know what great work looks like.

Secondly: stop comparing your beginning to someone else’s middle.

Every artist you admire has a secret archive full of terrible work they hope nobody ever sees.

The difference is they kept going.

And finally - my favorite piece of advice, without which everything above becomes pointless: have fun.

Because there will be days when it feels like the world is against you. The algorithm hates you. Nobody buys. Nothing works. Those days are guaranteed.

The people who survive aren’t always the most talented. They’re the ones who genuinely enjoy the process enough to keep showing up anyway.

When you truly enjoy making art, you become surprisingly hard to stop. You show up with the persistence of an Olympic athlete - not because someone forces you to, but because you actually want to be there.

Check out my man Gio via his website.

If you'd like to explore more Drei Fragen interviews, please click the link.

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I’m a corporate bod between 9-5, artist 24/7: My plan is to go from full time office working, to hybrid/remote working, which will free up more time and space for my art practice. Since 2021, I’ve managed to fit it all in whilst:

• working full time,

• having a little child,

• having a kidney transplant and

• other life events

Now I’m putting all of my effort into leaving my current role, who praise ‘campus working’ as the key ingredient to collaboration and therefore maximising productivity (profits). I’m sick of it. I hate the open plan office, I come home every single day frazzled.

So, with the new job search progress, I’ve had many multi-stage interviews and 4 company rejections in the past couple of weeks. I have another final stage interview on Friday 5th June. Wish me luck!

My aim is to secure a hybrid working role, even fully remote. This will open up time for my art practice.

How hybrid working life will be life changing

• Hours of communting time slashed

• I could make art during lunch, or go for a walk

• More time with my daughter in the evenings

• Most importantly, head space

• Not be frazzled every evening

Going into the office is 5 days per week, 48 weeks per year is killing exausting me. I often feel guilty about this as it’s not like I’m doing backbreaking manual labour for 12 hours a day. But fuck it, you know, It can be useful to get some perspective from others less fortunate, but I’m not playing that game any more, I don’t feel great being in the office for 39 hours, especially when sometimes there’s no work to do, but you still have to pretend to be busy, it’s modern day madness.

I think it might be my age, where you tend to see the bullshittyness of the modern workplace, or more specifially the so called rat race. We’re pretty much trapped in a cycle, and I know, before you say, ‘we’re free to leave our jobs’, technically yes, but a) The job market is batshit of late, and b) it’s too risky to leave without a plan B.

Now, how can I structure my art practice? Let’s start with…

Blindspots

We all have blindspots, and that’s totally ok.

I can be hyperfocused on tasks and that feels like it consumes my entire life at the time, and totally forget said project a day later, thanks to for pointing it out here.

“ADHD, particularly in combination with the cognitive load of parenting two small children, doesn’t just make it hard to focus. It makes it hard to hold the whole picture in your head at once. I can spend three hours deep in research for a UX client and emerge having completely forgotten that I was supposed to be applying to a light festival whose deadline is tomorrow. I can be genuinely excited about building a new indoor piece on Monday and feel no connection to that excitement by Wednesday, because Wednesday has its own demands.”

Shagun Singh

I can’t tell you how relieved I felt reading that paragraph above, I start too many things, especially since working with AI tools over the past year, it’s super quick to make web prototypes now, but also super quick to waste your time, yet feel super productive.

That said, I am not lazy, I’m not stupid, I’m not incapbable of big things. Now I see that it’s a ‘bigger picture problem’, or perhaps a priorities problem. Shagan goes on to say…

”The standard advice, prioritize, focus, do one thing at a time, isn’t wrong exactly, but it assumes a kind of linear executive function that I don’t consistently have access to. What actually works better, I’ve found, is externalizing the system. If the priorities live in my head, they’ll be overwritten by whatever is most urgent or most interesting in the moment. If they live somewhere outside my head, in a map, a workflow, a structured plan I’ve written down, they survive the interruptions.”

also talks about structure and containers a lot, and it’s having an outer shell for your creative practice, where it can fit neatly inside, this can be imaginary, just so it feels coherent.

(I urge you all to read Beth’s book, Structure Magic)

“Structure Magic is a guide to manifestation and mental freedom through structure.”

What a clear one-liner.

Next week, I will tell you how the interview went, and how I have put some structure around my new art practice. I crave something external to house of of this mess in my head.

T’ra for now.

SLART

If you’d like to support me…

So this is my new plan.

Projekt Rattloch has a stepping stone called Projekt Hybrides Arbeiten. No, that sounds a bit wordy, doesn’t it. Let’s try Projekt Hybrid. Sounds cool. (Projekt Ficken Vollzeit-Büroarbeit came a close second.)

This is the plan for the stepping stone.

Over the past year-ish I’ve been going balls-deep into AI tools, blah blah. I know many people are totally against AI and I understand why, but these skills are in demand and it’s opened doors to multiple job interviews, which I’m very grateful for. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my learning journey too.

I’ve also learned, well not learned but remembered, that “painting is the thing”. I’d still very much love to have a painting-centric life by design: spending most of my time painting, ultimately replacing the working hours with painting hours instead.

So yes, the stepping stone is the move to a hybrid role. I’m exhausted from being in the office 39 hours per week, plus 7.5 hours in my car. Working in a more interesting role will keep me engaged in the daytime, then I’ll have more energy for painting in my spare time, most importantly, in the gaps between hybrid working. I could work from the studio and then paint every lunchtime, for example. That alone would be life changing for me.

That’s it for this post. More to come on progress with the hybrid working job search.

For now,

Tutti bye

SLART

Moving forward, each W̶e̶d̶n̶e̶s̶d̶a̶y̶ Monday I ask a different artist the same three questions.

This week's featured artist is a close friend, peer, muse, painting buddy and fellow beer drinker, . I just had to share his story, he is what inspired the ressurection of Drei Fragen. Enjoy!

1. What first sparked your interest in creating art?

I had been a dedicated dad and in a job that took up in excess of 80 hours a week, so when my children went to university and my new wife was able to take the load of the younger children, I moved to a less stressful job and suddenly found myself with lots of time on my hands. I became irritable and restless, then for my birthday the family bought me a digital art tablet, I started by tracing famous artworks and then recolouring them. This became addictive as I found myself lost in the process and relaxing for the first time in years. Then my sister in law, herself an accomplished artist, encouraged me to enter some pieces inspired by music into the local art fringe. She then also encouraged me to enter a show called Art Brut being curated by the one and only Steve Light. Between the two of them they encouraged me to experiment and the rest is history.

2. What are your regrets?

Only that I believed everyone else who told me I had no talent and for believing that their idea of talent was in any way linked to what I could produce. I draw, paint or create every day now, it just feels so natural.

3. What wisdom would you offer someone beginning their art career, or exploring art for the first time at any stage in life?

I would impart the same wisdom my great friends and mentors Bex and Steve game me, just do it, just enjoy it and most of all believe in yourself. You will find yourself and your path among the various pieces you create.

Check out my man Art for me at 50 on Instagram.

If you'd like to explore more Drei Fragen interviews, please click the link.

…or if you’d rather. Please share this post with a friend.

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November 12th 2025. I was scrolling on Facebook and came across this local-rag-clickbait-post that contained the most horrid comments.

The comments ranged from “You call that a woman?” to “She should be shot” and those were the least harsh.

I don’t really spend much time pondering what I’m going to paint, it comes to me as i’m just going about my business you see, and this was something that just struck me as important to share my perspective on.

Her lost, sad eyes struck me.

Reference photo:

Recently in the same studio session, I added the finishing touches to this piece…

Next up, a HUGE shoutout to for reaching her fundraising goal, thanks to all of you for donating!

Best wishes,
SLART

A quick round-up of posts from Cream of The Crop worth going back to.

Posts scroll past quickly, so I thought I'd pull ten together in one place. Nothing fancy. Just a handful that are worth another look if they slipped by first time round.

1. I'm the cream of the crop

The one that kicked this whole thing off. Where I've come from, why I started writing here, and the pull between the life I've built and the one I keep being drawn towards.

2. Give yourself permission and you'll find the way

We wait to feel ready. Ready almost never turns up on time. This one's about getting out of your own way and just starting.

3. The turtle's approach: Slow & Steady

Progress doesn't always look like progress when you're in the middle of it. A small nod to the slow route, and why it's usually the one that actually works.

4. I caught hopesickness from creative legend, Mark Denton

About the lift you get from meeting people who are already living the way you'd like to be living. Sometimes you don't need a plan. You just need to catch a bit of what they've got.

5. DREI FRAGEN with Shagun Singh

One of the Drei Fragen interviews. Short, honest conversations with other artists about making work, doubt, identity, and the rest. Shagun's is a good one.

6. Creativity Unleashed with SLART and Dean Jackson

On taking your creative life a bit more seriously. Not in a grim way, in a "this deserves real time and energy" way.

7. Memento Vivere

A bit of a milestone. The moment something I'd been quietly working on went public. Worth a read if you missed the announcement.

8. Where the Dead Lie and Art Lives: Exploring the Crypt Gallery for the first time

The behind-the-scenes version of Memento Vivere. Nerves, excitement, the "oh god this is really happening" bit. Honest about all of it.

9. Screw it, let's do it (in 6 Days)

Scrappier than most. Sometimes you stop planning and just make the thing happen. This is what that looks like.

10. We Need The Artist's 4-Minute Mile

Less about me, more about what artists can do for each other. Breaking invisible ceilings. Showing other people what's possible.

If one of them catches you, let me know which. Always nice to hear.

SLART