Magic Happens When You Just Ask š«
Weekly Art Practice: Quentin Blake wrote back, a printer is in the post, and I lodged a formal complaint against Joe Lycett
Welcome, If youāre new here, Iām SLART an outsider artist, documenting my art journey whilst trying to free up more time and headspace to create more art. I have a new studio space by a beautiful lagoon that Iām currently navigating with an artist friend.
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 collectorā¦ 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.
Hereās the one that moved meā¦
The earthworm comes home
In 1993 I was eleven, and I drew an environmentally friendly earthworm for a national childrenās 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 āa talent which can be fostered.ā See below for the full storyā¦
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:
āWhat you have to do is to just start drawing, even if you think perhaps that you donāt do it well ā 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!ā
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:
āwhat if we find a sponsor to give us a 3D printer?ā
I replied with the full weight of my strategic planning:
āsure, Iāll send some emails.ā
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. Itās 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 heās turned the complaint letter into an art form, I opened with one: a formal complaint that heās 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 itās not really funny, but hopefully gets his attention with a āWTF?!ā
Iāve written to a Colour World Genius. Iāve written to Gilbert & George, who spent fifty years saying Art for All before we borrowed the idea and built it beside a lagoon. Iāve 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. Itās better than art school anydayy.
Studio BRUT, three weeks out
The building has started introducing itās 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 thatās 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 whoāve sent us a line of support. The Mayor is opening the night. The Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire is coming too. Itās 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 youāve ever fallen down a rabbit hole about a hospital patient who drew the universe in ballpoint, Itās 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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