In this video podcast interview I’m chatting with fellow post graduate student and soon-to-be Dr Kim Percy. Kim is a multi-media artist, designer, educator, curator and photographer who in the process of completing her PhD by research. Her studio was just down the hall from mine at uni and we’ve become great friends during my time as a post-grad artist. Kim'spractice-based research for her PhD focusses on Dyslexia and Kim has produced an incredible body of artwork for her graduating exhibition, ...
May 28, 2025•49 min•Season 13Ep. 121
It’s been several months since my last podcast so I’m delighted to be back. Today’s episode is the audio from my latest youtube video where I give a little tour of my my studio at uni where I do work for my MA and also share with you what I’ve been up to there. So if you’d like to see all the lovely video footage I have of my space and how I use it, be sure to pop on over to the link below. But for those of you who love a chatty podcast catchup, this one is just that. Watch the Youtube Video: ht...
May 12, 2025•18 min•Season 13Ep. 120
Dr. Ursula Betka was one of my favourite lecturers and tutors during my 6 years at Melbourne University studying art history in the 1990’s. Her area of specialisation, in which she has a Ph.D, focused on Medieval and Renaissance sacred images. On 3rd December, Ursula’s beautiful new book, published by Hardie Grant, is coming out and I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy. Titled “Techniques of Painting and Gilding in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Italy. Egg Tempera and Gold Leaf on ...
Nov 18, 2024•58 min•Season 13Ep. 119
Welcome to season 13! I’ve started a new season as I have recently started a new chapter of my life and career as an artist. Three months ago, I started my Master of visual at Federation University, which is here in my hometown of Ballarat. So I thought it was about to time to check in and let you know what I’ve been up to and how it’s been going. LINKS: This podcast is also a video! If you’d like to see the visuals that accompany what I’m talking about, be sure to pop on over to this video epis...
Oct 15, 2024•27 min•Season 13Ep. 118
Hi friends and welcome to episode 117. It’s been a wild month for me as I’ve had my second solo exhibition, ‘An Ornamental Education’ running here at the art gallery of Ballarat. It’s been an incredible ride having my first exhibition at a public art gallery and I wanted to make sure that I shared it with you before it ends on 14thApril. I’ve created a full guided tour for you on my YouTube channel. I really hope you head on over there to check it out, because the audio for this episode makes a ...
Apr 09, 2024•21 min•Season 12Ep. 117
It’s been a while between episodes, so in this chat I’m filling you in on some rather big changes that have been happening in my art practice and, well, my whole life as a consequence. As I’ve been working on my latest solo exhibition ‘An Ornamental Education’ (Art Gallery of Ballarat 7th-14thMarch 2024), I’ve been working intimately with historical sources for the first time, and it has lit a big fire in me for this method of making research-based artwork. It gradually became clear to me, with ...
Feb 27, 2024•25 min•Ep. 76
Welcome to episode 115 of the Studio insider art podcast. Today’s episode is once again an audio extract from my latest YouTube video . If you’d like to check out the visual to everything, I’m talking about then I highly recommend that you pop on over to the YouTube video and check it out. In this episode I’m taking you along with me as I do some historical research at the State Library of Victoria that relates to my latest exhibition. I’m researching an early Victorian female Botanical artist a...
Feb 27, 2024•25 min•Season 12Ep. 115
Finishing difficult paintings. I think we all have one (or two or three) faced against a wall or at the back of a cupboard, those difficult paintings that we just can’t seem to face completing. I know that you know what I’m talking about. Well, I have some artistic medicine for you today. In this month’s episode, I’m walking you through 20 tips that I use in my own art practice to help me finish difficult paintings. All tips are super practical and down to earth and I hope will really help you f...
Jun 15, 2023•29 min•Season 12Ep. 114
In today’s podcast episode once again sharing with you the audio component from my latest vlog over on YouTube that was released a few days ago. It’s a bit of a mixed bag of topics including how I grow my own botanical art samples and how I photograph them later in the studio for future reference. The main topic of today’s conversation is a big ‘ol life update. If you’ve noticed that I’ve been around much less often in 2023 and not very present on social media and are curious as to why this is t...
May 15, 2023•28 min•Season 11Ep. 113
In today’s episode, I’m talking about how to create a compelling and cohesive body of artwork. This episode audio was taken from the second half of my latest YouTube video titled “Studio Morning + How to kickstart a compelling body of artwork”. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been putting in lots of time learning how to make beautiful YouTube videos over the past couple of months and I’m really enjoying sharing with you in this format. I’m still on a steep learning curve with this, but I feel ...
Apr 02, 2023•34 min•Season 12Ep. 112
It’s just me on the podcast today and I’m doing something a little different. I’m undertaking my Painting as a Practice challenge this month and I thought it would be fun to talk you through all the fantastic things that I’ve learned in the first week of my practice month about painting on timber panels and raw linen. Bringing you inside my studio practice in a more practical sense has been something I’ve wanted to do for ages, so in order to make this chat as rich as possible, I’ve made a Youtu...
Feb 01, 2023•30 min•Season 12Ep. 111
For today’s episode, Steph and I got together at the Old Butcher’s shop gallery here in Ballarat where my exhibition Autumnal Dreamscapes is currently happening. We recorded our very first live episode in front of what was meant to be a live audience. As it turned out, the only people that turned up were Steph, myself, the gallery owner Julie and my mate Amie who helps me in the studio sometimes! So as you can imagine, I kind of felt like crawling under a rock and hiding after. But as I’ve learn...
Nov 22, 2022•47 min•Season 11Ep. 110
In today’s episode, I’m chatting again with Steven Patterson, the CEO of one of my favourite paint brands, Derivan Matisse. Steven and I first chatted in episode 96, so if you’d like to hear more about his journey with this fabulous and innovative Australian paint brand, then be sure to go and check that out in the archives. We identified in that conversation that we both had a fascination with colour and the history of pigment and thought it would be great to have another chat, this time focusi...
Nov 07, 2022•58 min•Season 11Ep. 109
In today’s episode, Steph and I are chatting about how our recent decision to pursue exhibiting our artwork has enriched our art practices in a variety of ways. Since re-orienting our art businesses to include exhibiting, both of having found that we are reaping huge benefits in the way we are approaching day-to-day studio time. For both of us, it now includes more of the deep and considered exploration of materials and techniques that come with upping the ante with what we are creating. We are ...
Oct 24, 2022•49 min
In today’s interview, I’m chatting with Irish-born, Sydney-based artist Marnie McKnight. I first fell in love with Marnie’s beautiful abstract expressionist artwork over on Blue Thumb. Since getting to know more about her, I’ve marveled at how she moves through different styles of painting and mediums in her practice with ease. We had a great conversation about how Marnie keeps focused on the joy of the painting and how this focus has shaped her thriving art business. We chat through how she app...
Aug 29, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 10Ep. 107
In today’s episode, Steph and I are chatting through our processes with overcoming limiting beliefs we’ve held in the past and exploring opportunities that we once thought we’d left behind. For me, this has happened in my desire to exhibit, which I never thought that I would do again. In this episode, I unpack some of my process of realizing that this was something that I really wanted to do again and then going on a journey to heal old wounds and create permission for myself to do that. For Ste...
Aug 15, 2022•45 min•Season 10Ep. 106
In today’s episode, I’m chatting with Sydney-based artist and surface designer Maggi McDonald. Known for her bold use of color and signature palette knife style, Maggi has always been creative. But it wasn’t until her son started pre-school and she confronted a period of depression after suffering miscarriages, that Maggi discovered the healing power of art and she decided to study design. During her studies, Maggi discovered that painting was calling her and since that time she’s built a global...
Aug 01, 2022•56 min•Season 10Ep. 105
Well, it feels like forever since I’ve released an episode! After being well whacked with influenza, I really needed some time off to recover, so thanks for your patience. I’m so happy to be back with today’s episode where Steph and I are unpacking the subject of collaborations. This can be a bit of a buzzword out there in the online world, but the reality is that collaboration can take on several different faces. Join Steph and I as we walk through many of the different forms that collaboration...
Jul 18, 2022•39 min•Season 10Ep. 104
In today’s episode, I’m chatting with fellow Aussie artist Anna Price. Anna is a Sydney-based artist who began painting full-time in 2019 after craving time away from her screen-based interior design career. Growing up she was constantly drawing, and she’s circled back around to art as an adult and Mum of four. Anna paints intuitively, unscripted and untrained. She draws on her creative intelligence to come up with multiple styles of busy abstract expressionist and geometric style artworks. Her ...
May 30, 2022•59 min•Season 9Ep. 103
In today’s episode, Steph and I are talking about teaching what you know as an artist. Steph talks about her experience teaching in-person workshops and delivering teaching for institutions. And I talk about my experience teaching in-person workshops, retreats and online courses. We talk through how teaching can be an important income stream for artists seeking to generate a bit more of a regular payday. We also talk through the pros and cons of each method of teaching and which we prefer best. ...
May 16, 2022•51 min•Season 9Ep. 102
In today’s episode I have a lovely interview with fellow Aussie artist Lizzie Alsop. Lizzie is a full time contemporary artist who works from her home studio on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. She’s been creative all her life and launched into her full time art career after a move to the coast fourteen years ago. Her artwork is a joyful and colorful mix of abstract and realism. Lizzie loves to create and express the wonder of her natural environment with abstract layers of geometric shapes...
May 01, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 9Ep. 101
I can’t believe we’ve created 100 episodes of this little podcast. It’s been such a joy to connect with you in this way over the past couple of years and I’m so grateful to each and every one of you for tuning and sharing the journey with me. I love the connection with you and with creatives all over the world that I’m able to nurture thanks to the podcast. It’s been the perfect way for this little introvert to deepen my connection with other artists and such a pleasure to be able to share it wi...
Apr 04, 2022•46 min•Season 8Ep. 100
In today’s episode, Steph and I dive deep into the sometimes elusive question of what our art is truly about and what motivates its creation. Anyone who has ever written an artist’s statement knows how tricky this question can be to answer, particularly when it comes to articulating it for the gatekeepers of the fine art world. But this conversation goes so much deeper than that. We explore how excavating this information can help in binding together all the different avenues and mediums of our ...
Mar 21, 2022•34 min•Season 8Ep. 99
In today’s episode I’m on my own talking about some of my favourite books that I read over the summer holidays that have just passed here. There is a pretty big range in breadth of the books that I read, but the ones I talk about in today’s episode are all ones with a focus on creative inspiration in one way or another. Some relate directly to art, some to interiors and women, some on the Eastern approaches to painting, and one is soulfully reflective. I’ve listed all of them in the show notes w...
Mar 07, 2022•35 min•Season 8Ep. 98
In today’s episode, Steph and I are unpacking the world of art prizes and grants. We talk through various aspects of this world- such as how prizes and grants differ from each other and what the experience of applying for each is like. We also talk about the exposure to the risk of failure in this process and how, for someone like me, this can be disabling. But for Steph, she has found that she’s been able to move on from hearing no and find her way through this. I was recently the recipient of ...
Feb 21, 2022•42 min•Season 8Ep. 97
Today's episode is a real treat for all the art supply nerds out there. Steven Patterson is the CEO of Derivan, a family-owned Sydney-based company that manufactures one of my favourite brands of acrylic paints: Derivan Matisse. Many of the Aussie artists out there would likely have used a Derivan product at one time or another as they were the first company to manufacture student grade acrylics back in the 1950s when his father started the company with a couple of partners. Steven grew up at th...
Feb 07, 2022•50 min•Season 8Ep. 96
Today Steph and I have a special little bonus episode for you. We’re talking all about the FREE painting challenge we run for our community every February and we’d love you to join us. In this studio chat we talk about the immense value we’ve both found after taking on this challenge, which we’ve done 3 times now and also how much we love the connection it gives us with you guys and the work that you’re making. Be sure to pop on over the challenge page on susannethercotestudio.com/challenge, or ...
Jan 30, 2022•25 min
It’s a fresh new year and new podcast season, so in today’s episode, Steph and I are talking about some of the big projects we have planned for 2022. Neither of us is a big one for micro-managing our art businesses. But each of us does have a couple of big projects coming up this year that we are excited to share. Join us as we chat about: Crowdfunding your next project Creating e-courses that feel very ‘in the flow’ Relocating to another country Creating a brilliant art database Links: Painting...
Jan 24, 2022•42 min•Season 8Ep. 95
In today’s episode, Steph and I are discussing our mutual tendency to go off on unexpected tangents in our artwork. In the world of art business, honing on one style that sells is what we are often encouraged to do. But as this conversation unfolds, we realise how vitality important following these tangents is for our emotional, spiritual and intellectual wellbeing. We also realise that it is an essential component to building integrity and professionalism as an artist in the longer term. This i...
Dec 20, 2021•37 min•Season 7Ep. 94
Hi and welcome to episode 93 of the studio insider art podcast. Have you been experiencing a downturn in art sales over the past few months? It’s something that Steph and I have both been experiencing, so we’re wondering if other artists out there, particularly in Australia, are experiencing this too? In many ways, this is not surprising to us, given that we have only just come out of two years of lockdown where we live. Our capital Melbourne has been the most locked-down city in the world, and ...
Dec 06, 2021•37 min•Season 7Ep. 93
