Sally Ward had to decline her well-earned place in Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Year competition in 2019, but in 2020 she entered again and to her utter surprise made it all the way to the final. Sally painted Melanie Sykes, Bernadine Evaristo and Eddie Izzard, and was very relieved that she didn’t trip over any cables. Find out all about her experience in this second part of a double-bill podcast episode.  With thanks to Storyvault Films Ltd for audio footage. CreativityFound.co.uk Instagram: @creativityfoundpodcast Facebook: @creativityfoundpodcast Pinterest: @creativityfound Twitter ..read more

Andrea Carter Brown fell in love with reading poetry as an angsty teenager, but couldn’t bring herself to try writing it because she was put off by the high standard of the works she read.  ‘If I couldn’t write like the greats, I wasn’t going to try.’ Many years later Andrea’s friend took her to a New York poetry reading and, in that darkened room, Andrea began writing her own poetry on the only paper she could quickly find, and for weeks afterward she did nothing but write, letting years of pent-up poetry spill out of her. Fast forward and Andrea has published a number of poetry collect ..read more

For this bonus episode I am chatting with Nancy Fellows who founded Creatful CIC to enable people in her community to access mindful, informal arts and crafts events and, where needed, to signpost them to mental wellbeing services, all borne out of a need Nancy identified while struggling with her own mental health. As well as inspiring listeners with my guests’ stories of how they found or re-found their creativity as grown-ups and how that has benefitted their everyday lives, here at creativity found I also want to encourage adults of any age to find their own creative passion. Creativityf ..read more

For this bonus episode I’m joined by Gillian Park, who teaches a wealth of painting and drawing programmes and courses, for the absolute beginner to those wanting to improve their skills, and even those wanting to make their art their livelihood.  Guests of the Creativity Found podcast often talk about, as youngsters, not knowing that being an artist could be a job, or not expecting later in life that their new-found artistic passion could make them any money. Which is why I love the concept of Gillian Park’s programme called Don’t Be a Starving Artist.  In this episode I chat with G ..read more

For this short and sweet bonus episode (while I'm on summer hols) I caught up with Gerry Coles (episode 2) to find out what's new in her world of linocut printmaking. CreativityFound.co.uk Instagram: @creativityfoundpodcast Facebook: @creativityfoundpodcast Pinterest: @creativityfound Twitter: @creativityfoun Clubhouse: @clairewaitebrown and Creativity Found Connect club Music: Day Trips by Ketsa Undercover / Ketsa Creative Commons License Free Music Archive - Ketsa - Day Trips Artworks: Emily Portnoi emilyportnoi.co.uk Support the show ..read more

In this short and sweet bonus episode (while I'm on summer hols) I caught up with Cass Sabo (episodes 3 and 22) to find out what's new in her world of weaving. CreativityFound.co.uk Instagram: @creativityfoundpodcast Facebook: @creativityfoundpodcast Pinterest: @creativityfound Twitter: @creativityfoun Clubhouse: @clairewaitebrown and Creativity Found Connect club Music: Day Trips by Ketsa Undercover / Ketsa Creative Commons License Free Music Archive - Ketsa - Day Trips Artworks: Emily Portnoi emilyportnoi.co.uk Support the show ..read more

Ella Orr’s parents came to the UK from Mauritius in the 1960s and, understandably, they wanted Ella to do well academically. But they also wanted her and her sister to have a wider outlook and sent them to dancing and music lessons, which Ella loved, so much so that she choose to do a creative arts degree. But once thoughts turned to earning a living, musical theatre didn’t seem like a lucrative or sensible path, so Ella was encouraged to go into teaching.  More than a decade into her primary education career, Ella found that constant inspections, lack of self-worth and pressures on the c ..read more

Fiona Myles grew up in a small town in Scotland, always aware that she was different from her siblings because she was adopted. As a teenager, she became increasingly isolated and began to rebel. She moved to London to work as a nanny, but quickly got caught up in a world of drugs and alcohol, ending up homeless and sleeping rough in Victoria Station.  She even had a brush with death when she tried to commit suicide, but failed. She realized that she needed to make a change.  She eventually found the supportive network to help her rebuild her life and began helping other girls in sim ..read more

Aged 18 Jennifer Baker packed her bags and moved from Florida to New York City to study at the School of Visual Arts, one of the best art schools in the US. It was the 1980s and she says that the school and the experience moulded her as an artist and as a person, but she couldn’t live there forever.  After graduating Jennifer had no clue of how to make art her profession, although she did try. She loved to travel and moved to Italy with her husband, where she ran a successful translating business for 20 years – but there was no time, or space, for painting. So, how is it that Jennifer has ..read more

Jo Watson fell into teaching after being told she wasn’t clever enough to study law and that to get into journalism she needed a different degree to the one she had. She loved her first-year placement, and did really well, but at her second school her experience was not so good. She was stifled in her teaching freedom and because of that lost her enthusiasm for the job. When she left that school with no new job to go to, she once again fell into a placement, this time at a football club, where her creative approach and ideas were more highly valued – until she moved into leadership, that is. W ..read more