SLART: Weekly Reflections on the Journey of an Outsider Artist

The Outsider Artist known as SLART: Weekly art practice number 57.

Hello from a bright and beautiful Saturday afternoon in Swindon Town!

Hi, I'm

SLART

, an Outsider Artist based in Swindon, UK.

Here's what you'll find in my newsletter:

→ My Top-notch art, Behind-the-scenes access to my studio and art practice, Weekly advice column 'Drei Fragen', Lessons learned and personal development insights.

📌 NEW HERE? WHAT'S THIS WEEKLY ART PRACTICE ALL ABOUT?

Every Saturday, I share my weekly art practice journey. I'm captivated by the whole process – not just the finished pieces, but everything from influences to materials. It's like getting a behind-the-scenes peek at an artist's world.

[If this masterpiece is too long for email, you can read Cream of the Crop in Substack. Or download the Substack app.]

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I fancied giving you 50% off of my yearly Subscription to Cream of the Crop, take a look. It’ll cost you less than one Takeaway Ruby Murray per year! (If you’re not British, I apologise for the confusion).

💡 SLART’s | Insight Of The Week

A supposed Goethe quote explains this week’s insight:

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.“

⏳ Memento Vivere Art Exhibition Update (Coming in September 2025)

I’ve scheduled a meeting in March with a potential patron for the exhibition. It’s been a slow, meticulous process and is quite out of my comfort zone. Typically, I prefer to accomplish tasks quickly (except when I’m painting), and asking for financial support for my art is challenging for many of us. However, the first step is complete—I’ve arranged the meeting. I’ll just show up, be myself, ask for their support, discover what they’re hoping to achieve, and try and make sure it’s mutually beneficial.

I had a chat with Artist, Olek this week about the exhibition, and they were really supportive. They suggested a tweak to my promo video—using a woman's voice instead, pointing out that we're often used to hearing men in authoritative roles. Olek mentioned it kindly, without pointing fingers, and it made immediate sense to me. Drawing from my day job, I decided to mix things up by featuring both male and female narrators, splitting the roles evenly. This way, visitors will hear either a male or female voice, and we'll track which narrator correlates with higher sign-up rates.

Which one do you get when you visit the Memento Vivere page?

Here’s the female-narrated version:

Search Engine Optimisation for SLART

I’m leaving this segment for now, I’ll have more data on a monthly basis, and when I make some upcoming updates to the site, stay tuned for some exciting data.

Zine Mania: Part 5:

With only 13 days left until the submission deadline, I have to admit I haven’t even started my page yet. I set up Discord thinking it would help, but I haven’t really been active there—sorry, Zine gang. I’m trying to juggle a lot right now, and with moving house, but I need to stop stressing about this project. It’s supposed to be fun, and we can always tweak the deadlines if we need to. It’s great to see so many people keen to join in; it shows it’s a creative project that really resonates with folks!

I’ll make a start on my page in the coming week and report back!

Did I tell you that we have an information genius

Tess McCarthy

who is on board, supporting the project by sharing the Zine to libraries?

Make sure you check out her Substack at:

🎨 This Week in My Art Studio

I’ve been fantasising about my ideal space this week, the studio is fairly crammed at the moment, so the shelving project. My pal Rory Walker is going to take the lead and show me how it’s done, historically, I’ve not been the best at DIY, but I refuse to say I’m crap at it, it’s just that I haven’t tried that much. There’s a lesson there somewhere.

Rory has been drawing me again, he seems to love drawing men with beards, including himself. Check out the handsome fellow…

SLART(YBARTFAST) by Rory Walker.

Check out his art and illustrations on Instagram if you're so inclined.

rorywalkerart

A post shared by @rorywalkerart

Back to the studio redesign…

I’ve had a bit of a mosey on the old Pinterest.

It’s given me some food for thought. What do I want for my studio? There are three main things.

1. A place to store materials

2. A place to store finished pieces

3. A place or two to paint and draw (seated and standing)

So, we need to put up the Rory shelf, which solves my second priority. As a Kallax devotee, I'll see if I can get a second one with drawers to store all my materials in one place. Then, for my first priority, painting a couple of wall spaces and setting up a seated area with a tilted board would be cool.

Also in the studio, I started on this piece, it’s slowly unfolding around an old passport photograph of my late older brother, Gary.

Using my wall as a Post-it note to remind me to paint this.

I took the photo in black and white to make it look cooler, did it work?

SLART’s Muses of the Week

Check out the amazing

ARTSTACK

, they’re creating the Art community on Substack they want to see in the world!

Mark Lesser

’s beautiful abstract oil painting caught my eye, stunning, innit?!!.

Sadie Spencer

s’ Newsletter is a worthwhile read if you’re into Theatre and are London-based. I’ll let Sadie explain in her own words:

Do you see how important it is for you to write about your own passions? You don’t get this perspective from big companies or publications!

Below: This wonderful post by

Shagun Singh

inspired me, it was just what I needed to hear right at this moment in time. I got in touch with Helen Downie on Instagram and shared the post with her. I’ll say no more, just read the post if you have ever that the deceitful thought ‘It’s too late to get started’…

Launching an Art Career at 48 and Achieving Fame with Gucci Collaboration at 50

This thread has inspired me a lot, coming across creative people who I wouldn’t have stumbled across otherwise. I am going to keep this thread going so we can look back in a year and see how they’ve grown. Please check it out below!

Finally,

Courtney Romano

has lit a fire under my backside with her writing in support for all artists in any field. Her words are refreshing—check them out below. This post stood out in particular, it was the first one I stumbled across (Thanks to the algorithm of

Substack

!).

The 21st-Century Artist's Playbook

Ramona Lee’s message on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/ramonalee.us

And that my friends, is all for now.

Oh before you go, why did you subscribe? I wanna know! It’ll help me find more cool people like yourself.

Have a great Saturday.

Best wishes,

SLART.

P.S. One more thing, could you please leave a 4 or 5-star (Hopefully not 1,2 or 3) review on my SLART Google page? I'm trying to boost my online visibility as an artist and this tiny, simple, quick action would greatly help me. Many thanks! :)

I’m asking a lot of you today, aren’t I? I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Oh, Here’s my last Drei Fragen post, if you missed it.
It’s Paul Exton.