Why are most of Louise Hearman’s works untitled? Why does John Wolseley think you have to be a cicada in order to paint a cicada? Why won’t Archibald winner Lewis Miller use social media? How does Wendy Sharpe feel about the term ‘woman painter’?

You’ll hear the answers to these and many more questions on the Talking with Painters podcast, an arts podcast hosted and produced by Maria Stoljar, now up to its 50th episode. Notable Australian painters ranging from figurative to abstract artists not only talk about how they became an artist, their techniques and process, but also the struggles they’ve encountered along the way – from learning and developing as an artist, to getting through the anticlimax of a show’s opening night and fighting off the inner critic that finds its way into the mind of almost every creative.

You can also see short videos on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel where most guests have opened the doors to their studios and talk about their work, often giving tips on technique and process such as how they use their palette or clean their brushes. In one clip artist George Raftopoulos carries out a painting demonstration at a high school and the students later talk about what they learned.

The podcast includes conversations with some of Australia’s most acclaimed painters including Euan Macleod, Aida Tomescu, Katherine Hattam, Ken Done, Suzanne Archer, Natasha Bieniek, Prudence Flint and Lucy Culliton.

The podcast has over 10,000 followers on social media – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube – and was nominated as a finalist in the 2018 Australian Podcast awards. And best of all it’s free!

Listen on the website www.talkingwithpainters.com or however else you get your podcasts. To see the videos, search ‘Talking with Painters playlist’ on YouTube.

Maria Stoljar
Podcast Host & Producer of Talking with Painters