Ep #17: Painting from a place of wonder - with artist Gabriella Buckingham

Podcast

Aug 19

In this episode, I sit down with Gabriella Buckingham, a British contemporary painter known for her experimental still life and intuitive landscape work. Gabriella's journey from graphic design student to successful fine artist is anything but conventional - after initially studying graphic design, she made an emotional plea to switch to illustration, launched a greeting card business that swiftly turned into what felt like a “sweatshop operation”, and eventually transitioned to fine art via a supermarket job during COVID!

What makes Gabriella truly fascinating is her multifaceted practice that seamlessly weaves together art-making, teaching, and spiritual exploration. She runs online painting courses where she literally “speaks her brain” while demonstrating techniques, and writes weekly esoteric mailings covering astrology, tarot, and energy work. Gabriella's approach to both art and life is refreshingly intuitive.

Perhaps most moving is Gabriella's openness about her spiritual connection to her work, including a profound experience with her guardian angel that shaped her business name: From a Place of Wonder.

I loved this conversation and I’m sure you will too!

Listen to the episode here (click the arrow at the bottom right to play), or find it wherever you get your podcasts:

Find out more about Gabriella:

Gabriella Buckingham is a British contemporary painter living near the sea in North Norfolk with her freelance photographer husband Tony and one of her two children: the other has flown the nest! She’s known for her experimental still life and intuitive landscape paintings. Her work has appeared in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London a couple of times and two of her works were made into products for the RA shop in 2024. Gabriella studied illustration at art college and has worked for BBC TV, Ladybird books, a host of magazines and greeting card publishers.

Colour, the mystery of the unseen and freedom are the drivers of her work which has been collected worldwide. She is a budding witch with a deep fascination for all things esoteric!

Visit Gabriella’s art website
Visit Gabriella’s teaching website: A Place of Wonder
Find her on YouTube
Find her on Instagram
A Place Of Wonder on Instagram

Introduction
Hello and welcome to Zuzu's Haus of Cats Presents... I'm your host, artist Eli Trier, although you can call me Zuzu. And on this podcast, I talk to my fellow artists about the magic of the creative process. We'll talk about what they make and in particular, how they make it. Their rituals and workflows, inspirations and disenchantments, ebbs and flows. We'll even take a peek behind the scenes of their businesses to see how they're using their creativity there too, and how they balance the needs of their business with the needs of their art.
If you're interested in getting a behind-the-scenes look at what makes artists tick and enjoy conversations about art, creativity, neurodivergence and business, then you're in the right place.
Welcome back everybody. I have another absolutely fantastic guest to share with you today. The Haus of Cats is so proud to present Gabriella Buckingham.
Gabriella is a British contemporary painter living near the sea in North Norfolk with her freelance photographer husband Tony and one of her two children. The other has flown the nest. She's known for her experimental still life and intuitive landscape paintings. Her work has appeared in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London a couple of times and two of her works were made into products for the Royal Academy shop in 2024.
Gabriella studied illustration at art college and has worked for BBC TV, Ladybird Books, a host of magazines and greeting card publishers. Colour, the mystery of the unseen and freedom are the drivers of her work which has been collected worldwide. She is a budding witch with a deep fascination for all things esoteric. We had such an amazing conversation I can't wait to share this one with you. Let's get straight to it.
Getting Started - From Graphic Design to Illustration
Eli: I'm so happy to have Gabriella Buckingham here in the virtual studio with me today. Gabriella thank you so much for spending the time and doing this with me today.
Gabriella: You're very welcome. Thanks for asking me.
Eli: So shall we start off? Do you want to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Gabriella: Okay, well my name is Gabriella as you've just said and I've been an artist, a painter in some form or other since 1990 when I left art college. I didn't study painting, I studied graphic design and then after a year of doing that, I was in the second year and I thought, oh my goodness, I don't like this. Because I was doing oil paintings of flowers and I got told off because I should have been doing typography. So I said, I don't want to do this anymore.
And I had to have an interview to change to the illustration stream. They said, so why do you want to change? And I just said, I've just got to. I've just got to. And I think I probably started to cry. And they just said, OK, we'll let her in then. And that was it. That was my interview.
Anyway, I digress slightly. So I left there and then I became a freelance illustrator essentially for the next 20, 25 years or so. But I did lots of other things, but I expect you'll ask me about that. But essentially I am now a full-time fine art painter and educator of other artists, budding artists. They tend to be midlife women who I teach online. But I also do some in-person teaching as well in my home garage studio, which is a real mess at the moment. And I have three weeks to get it sorted out for the next one.
Current Practice - Teaching and Creating
So I do that. And I also write an esoteric mailing to a few people. It's a paid subscription. So I do that every week as well, because I call my business From a Place of Wonder. That's the overarching brand of it. It used to be the teaching arm was Brave in Paint, because that's essentially what I'm trying to do is encourage people to be courageous and brave with their painting simply because that's what I needed myself.
Coming from an illustrator background, working very small and teaching myself to paint gradually over the years, I know that's what I need. When I teach, I am completely sharing my process. I have a screen where I can see students' comments while I'm painting on camera. So I look at their questions and then I talk as I'm painting. I literally speak my brains as I'm painting. So they know me intimately. They know all my failings, if you like.
In some ways it helps me to see where my own mental blocks are, if you like. So I might catch myself saying something like, oh, I'm no good at this. I will literally say what I'm thinking and then catch myself and say, no, we're not supposed to say that. It's that sort of thing. It's very real. And I feel it's very intimate, which I really like. So that's what I do, essentially.
Eli: I love that. There's so much there that I want to unpack. First of all, I cannot believe that you're able to look at questions and narrate what you're doing while you're painting. For me, painting is such a non-verbal thing. I'm just astonished at people who have that capacity to chat at the same time.
Gabriella: I think it's quite rare. I mean, I don't always say really intelligent things, I'm sure. I really don't. But I notice when I go quiet, because I feel it's my duty to share what I'm thinking, I suppose. But a lot of people have said the same to me that they haven't really come across that before. It's not in the way I do it. That's really good. Nice to know. I feel like it's my superpower, definitely.
The Esoteric Connection
Eli: And I'm also fascinated by this esoteric mailing that you send out. I've spotted that on your website. That's interesting. Can you talk a little bit more about what that looks like and how that feeds into the art and the teaching?
Gabriella: Well, yes. If I start with when I was about 15, I became really interested in astrology. So it started there, but it was always on the surface, if you like. So I just read great big chunky books about star signs, essentially about Capricorns. That's what I am and all the others, of course.
But then when I was at art college, I had to do a dissertation as you do to get a degree. And I decided to do it on astrology. My tutor was from the architecture department. He thought it was a bit odd that I was doing that. But you could do it on anything, which I was surprised at. But that's what I was interested in. So I did it.
But I remember that I had to go away and write two sample chapters, or just one, I think it was. And I did that. But I did it really not trying at all. So I think I was watching EastEnders or something, which I don't watch now at all. But I was watching that and I was just writing a few notes, roughly what I might do for the first chapter. And I handed it in and he phoned me up and said, Gabriella, I need to see you in my office. He said, if this is how you're going to write, you'll fail your degree.
And I said, oh, if he's go away and write, I said, well, I only did it. I think I explained. I think I just went off and did it and I just wrote it as I would write it really. And then when I came back to him, he said, well, this is fine. He said, you'll get a two one if you carry on this way. So that was fine. And I did. That's what I got.
But I loved it and I really interviewed Patrick Moore, who was obviously an astronomer to ask him. But when I say interviewed, I wrote to him and he sent me a postcard back, which I've still got, which is all hand typed on those old fashioned machines saying, I shouldn't bother young lady. It's a waste of time or something like that. You can imagine, can't you?
And then I also interviewed on the phone, Nicholas Campion, the astrologer as well. So I got those two interviews and I found out about a science experiment with prawns that proves that the moon has an influence on us on earth or certainly has an influence on them. So that was another thing. And then this tutor came up to me after I wrote it in the last term in the library and said, Gabriella, by the way, did I ever tell you that after I read your dissertation, I now believe in astrology?
Eli: Wow.
Gabriella: And he was completely non-believing before. So anyway, that was the foundation of it. So I've always had that interest. And then a few years ago, I studied human design when that started to come online, which obviously I found out about through Instagram because there were so many human design readers there. And I actually did spend some time doing readings, and that's something I'd like to do again, but they took me so long because I really did everything by hand. I didn't have any machines or anything. So I spent literally three days or four days doing one for maybe 150 pounds or whatever it was I was charging.
So in the end, I thought, I can't really, that's not sustainable. I can't fit that in with my artwork. So, I'm also now studying the gene keys and I'm starting to study astrology properly now. And I'm also interested in numerology. So there's all these things. I'm not studying numerology, but I've had my numerology done for me by somebody else. And I find that really fascinating. And so I'm interested in things like where the planets are in any one week and which energy gate they're going through.
And so I talk about that and how it impacts us every week. I also, tarot is the other thing I'm learning as well. So I do pull three tarot cards a week and then I explain what that means for us in the week. And then put my own interpretation on how we might be feeling and how then the energy of the gates might affect, correlate with that. And then I pull an oracle card at the end, which I usually just read what's in the book, write what's in the book and then put my interpretation on it right at the end.
So that's what I do. And I really love doing that, but it's time consuming. So fitting everything in is quite tricky.
Work Schedule and Routine
Eli: So what does that look like in terms of your average work week? Do you have like a set schedule or are you very much kind of...?
Gabriella: No, I'm very, very good. Having said that, at the moment I'm teaching my experimental still life course online. So I'm running it differently every time. So I like experimenting with different ways. And this time I'm running over seven months. So I'm literally appearing every Monday for seven months. That was actually worked out six and half this time.
So every Monday I do that and that's what I focus on. So it means that probably Sunday I'm preparing for that. I'm afraid I'm one of these people who I have an aim at some point in my life to have a whole weekend off and have a whole two week holiday, but I have never had. So I can't remember. I think when I was 19, I had a two week holiday. And when I was 21, since then I haven't. So that's an aim for 2026 to have a whole two weeks off. That'd be lovely.
So no, my typical week is probably teaching on Monday, and then in July and August, I'm going to be teaching for two days a week. So I'm doing another course on intuitive painting for the Penn Studio in America, and that's online. So I'm doing that. So those two days and the bit of the weekend that we've taken up preparing for that. And then the rest of the time, I might have a day a week where I go out somewhere, maybe I might go and see an exhibition, something like that, but it really isn't a fixed thing. I want that to become a fixed thing.
Because I am doing the not the artist's way, but the next one where you do the daily journaling and you're supposed to take yourself out on an artist's date.
Eli: That's the hardest part of that whole process is the artist's date. The morning pages is great. The artist's date…
Gabriella: I know. I do. And an ideal day, I would go for an hour long walk, which I do do sometimes through the countryside, which I find is just lovely. And sometimes I'll listen to a gene key, which sounds a bit odd, but they're quite long sort of meditations on each gene key and the energy of them. So they're about 25 minutes. So I could probably listen to two in that walk.
So I might do that and then come back, probably have breakfast and then usually a faff around on social media or answering emails or something for about an hour. And then I'll probably get into the studio from about 11, I suppose. And then until I probably work till about four. But I do have YouTube in here, so I will put on some kind of astrology thing or something to listen to while I'm working.
And then, yeah, I might, like last week, I was lucky enough, not last week, the week before, was lucky enough to go up to London, see an exhibition, and meet a couple of friends. So that was really lovely. That's rare that I would do that. So yeah, it's quite a quiet life, generally.
Eli: That's lovely. I think you really need that as an artist. You need large pockets of solitude to just sink down into the place where the art happens. Do you know what I mean by that?
Gabriella: Yes, I do. I really do. And I'm still aiming for that because my own personal issues are, even though I've got two studios, it sounds great, but this one's really tiny. So I have to spend a lot of time clearing up and de-chaosing everything. And then the garage, I've had full of boxes and things like that from an exhibition that I curated recently. And now I've decided to tart it up and paint the floor. Can you imagine? Paint the floor of a garage.
So I'm moving furniture at the moment and trying to paint that. So I create a lot of tasks for myself, put it that way. And I don't think it's distraction. It's like trying to create order that one day will happen for me. One day it will be all, ah, because I love it when things are tidy. It makes me feel relaxed. I'm able to focus much better on the work that I want to do. I think one of the questions that might come up is how I juggle the different aspects.
Juggling Different Aspects of Practice
Eli: Yeah, tell us about that. How do you manage that?
Gabriella: That is quite hard because I'm teaching experimental still life. So I have to break it down into different approaches. So of course I'm demonstrating those approaches. So it can get quite confusing for me if I'm just doing little bits here and there. I do end up with a lot of unfinished pieces of work that I have to think, well, do I want to go back into that? What do I want to take from that? Where am I personally going with my work now. So that's quite challenging. I have to make lists and things.
Eli: Sorry. I just interrupted you there. I was just thinking, because you're doing this teaching and you're mentioning that you're creating pieces that are demonstrations and things like that, have you found that teaching has changed your relationship with the work that you make? Do you find that the lines are blurred between the work that you're called to make and the work that you're doing as demonstrations for your students?
Gabriella: Yes, I would say so. That's why I feel like I need to create myself more space, more time. And, I keep saying to my husband, I'd really love to just go off for two weeks somewhere into a tiny cottage where there's no one around, where I can just sink into what is it that I actually really want to do?
Because the thing is with me, I do feel capable of doing almost any style. I'm one of those people, if you put a painting in front of me, I could probably work out how to, I could copy it. I could do that. But obviously that's not something I want to do. And I find that the most joyful work for me is my looser work, the things that just emerge out of me.
And yet last week I finished a painting that was incredibly tight. And yet I still, there are still elements of it that I love and I feel it's a really good painting, but it was work. Do you see what I mean? It doesn't mean it's any less good, but it's just incredibly different.
So in some ways, I'm quite proud of the fact that I can do the two different things or maybe even three things. Not in the sense of, oh, look at me, aren't I fantastic? But just that I am exploring all aspects of myself. And that is what's important to me as an artist. There is no way I think, and this is where I get goosebumps, there's no way that I think anybody should suppress any aspect of their artistic creativity. And that is what I'm all for.
So, this is what I love about your website is that you're being completely true to yourself with no fear whatsoever. And it's just glorious. The personality in there, I just love it. I really do. And it makes me really excited and it makes me feel brave, braver. I want to change my website. It wouldn't be like yours. It hopefully would be like me. But my whole artistic journey is like trying to find who I am, really. And I feel that's how I feel about it.
Other people may decide that they are going to go for a certain look and style and certain markets and they go for it and good for them because they are probably making a lot of money. But that's just not my journey.
The Artist's Role as Innovator
Eli: No, and I feel like we have a sort of moral obligation almost as artists to be the ones who are evolving and innovating and who are unafraid to try new things. And this is no shade to anybody who wants to do the same thing over and over again. I have full respect for people who just want to achieve mastery over one particular thing. That's fabulous. But I also feel like as artists, we are innovative. And I think it's crazy that platforms like Instagram are so rewarding of people doing the same thing over and over again, to the point where artists feel like that's how you are supposed to be an artist.
Gabriella: Absolutely.
Eli: But if you look at any of the greats throughout art history, they're always the ones who are like, ooh. What happens if I do it like this? What happens if I do this? What happens if I smush these things together?
Gabriella: Exactly.
Eli: And I think that's the joy of being an artist is having that curiosity and the desire to pull on those threads and go down there. And I love that you do that with your work as well. And I'm curious, like, how do you decide? Is there a decision that you make when you come to the blank canvas? Do you know if you want to paint something that's more intuitive? Do you know if you want to paint something that's more technical? Like what's the process? What does that look like?
Decision-Making Process
Gabriella: Usually I will make a decision before I even go into the studio in that today I'm going to do intuitive work or today I'm going to go and paint from life. So if I'm going to do that, then I'll need to set something up. So in that sense, it's quite straightforward.
Where it's slightly blurred is intuitive painting can be anything. It could be a still life, which I do. I do do intuitive still life as well as observational. And I do like what I really love to do. And that's, this is probably my core thing with still life is blend both. So blend imagination with what I observe as well. I find that really interesting.
And I think that might be partly my illustrator background where you used to gather either photographs you took and maybe you might get a photograph from a magazine. And then you'd have them around and then you just look at one and paint that and look at the other and paint that and put them together. And I think that's still in me and I still find that fascinating.
And I used to look at other artists that I admired in the 1990s who were painting really loosely and yet with quite thick paint and I didn't paint like that then. When I left art college, I was painting almost like a watercolour style. I used to do romantic fiction illustration. So it was all quite realistic, but really watercolour style. Very delicate, lots of pooled colour.
So I used to literally drop droplets of acrylic down onto this honeymule paper that I'd put gesso over in quite a rough way. So there were ridges and it would pool like that. And it was really beautiful, but it wasn't incredibly commercial. It was fine for, I think it was My Weekly I worked for and a magazine that doesn't exist anymore called Me. Or essentials, something like that. And I didn't actually do any book covers like that, but just magazine illustration.
And then I gradually, my painting became more opaque in terms of style. But I remember really admiring the very loose brushwork of greeting card artists. And I gradually taught myself to get looser. And I was never like anybody else. I did develop my own style and I worked primarily for Gibson Greetings for about 10 years, doing greeting cards for them.
The Business Journey - From Illustration to Fine Art
Eli: It brings up a really interesting point that you have had this incredible career where you have gone off in all sorts of different creative avenues. You started off doing illustration, you had the greeting card thing, you did MooBaaCluck. I didn’t realise that was you. I recognised the name when I was reading.
Gabriella: Oh wow! Yeah, I did. Oh, that was, that started when I moved to Norfolk because we were living in South London, Kingston on Thames. And just before I got married, I had been a product manager for two years for a greeting card company. So I was commissioning other artists. And before that, I was an in-house artist doing Christmas cards for three years.
And so when I got married, I still was working as a product manager for a short while. And then I left knowing I could go back to freelance illustration. Which is what my plan was anyway, because I had planned to be a product manager for two years, learn how to run a greeting card company and go off and do that yourself. And I thought, no, I really don't want to do this because of all the bureaucracy. And I just couldn't stand it.
I used to fight with the accountant to get the artist paid, things like that. Because I was just like, ah, this poor girl standing in a phone box saying, I need the money to pay my bills. And I'll see what I can do. I know she'll have to wait till the next cheque run and that kind of thing. I really couldn't stand it. So I thought, no. No way am I ever going to work in an office again.
So then, anyway, had babies, came to Norfolk, had babies. They needed little gifts to go when they went to school, they'd go to birthday parties, things like that. So I just found some stars somewhere. I can't even remember. I bought some wooden stars and I just used to paint those. And then I thought, oh, I could make this into business.
And I was also going out doing party plan for Phoenix Trading, so that was going out to do house parties, which I was dreadful at when I first started, I was so nervous. And very boring. But anyway, I was selling those, I thought, I'm going out selling other people's cards, why don't I do my own cards, print those and sell a few little personalised things. I'll at least show them what I can do.
So I used to go out with both and sometimes I'd get orders for both. And then I started doing fairs and then I got spotted by notonthehighstreet.com. And they sent me a letter. I do remember two quite posh sounding people who seemed like they were from London just buying a few of my things. And I thought this was really unusual. And then I got this letter saying, we'd like to invite you onto the platform. So I did that and was on there for 10 years.
But I basically created my own sort sweatshop type job. And I was painting every day, but I wasn't painting art. I was painting beautiful lettering, hand lettering that I did, which I've discovered I had an ability for, and cute illustrations on everything. So that was really fun, but doing it again and again, the same thing again and again, under time pressure.
And you can imagine it, run up to Christmas, I was literally working seven days a week from the moment I got up until I went to bed for about six weeks constantly.
Eli: That's brutal.
Gabriella: It was, it really was. And I was doing that probably until I was about 49, I suppose. So yeah, around about 2018, I think I decided, no, enough's enough. I kept the shop for a little while and I changed it to From a Place of Wonder. And I introduced some cards and a couple of prints and things. But it just petered out because it wasn't my focus. My focus was then, I'm going to be a fine artist. That's what I'm going to do.
Eli: So was that the catalyst? Just that extreme workload and the burnout from doing MooBaaCluck.
The Transition to Fine Art
Gabriella: Yeah, I think so. Yes, I just thought, come on, Gov, you've got one life, you've just got to go for it. And also my children were older and I started getting into self-help books and things like that. But I did have to have a bit of transition. I didn't just go from MooBaaCluck into, oh, here I am selling loads of artwork. It was, I got a job in a supermarket for three days a week.
And I was doing that for a couple of years and that was during COVID. And I also joined an artist support group called Connected Artists, which you've probably heard of, run by Alice Sheridan. I'm not part of it now, but there are lots of groups, there's Tara Leaver, isn't there? The Happy Artist, and Alice's group, which was really good. And that sort of showed me how to, things like how to work out your pricing, things like that, pricing formula and all those sorts of things.
So anyway, I started connecting with lots of other artists, going to meetups and things like that, and getting much more involved in Instagram. And while I was at Waitrose, I knew I wanted to get out. It was okay, but I didn't love it. And I must admit, I did hurt my back really badly from lots of the, I was doing customer shopping, so you have to lift a lot of heavy weight. And I was twisting and I just felt my back go one day. So I've got a permanently damaged back now. But I'm coping. It seems to be pretty all right now. I've started pilates and I can do a bit of jogging here and there.
But what was I saying? Yes, I used to listen to Gay Hendricks book, The Big Leap. Anyway, so I got to the point where I was just at a really low ebb. It was COVID or just before COVID. That's right, I think. And I had obviously started to see what other artists were doing, teaching online, that kind of thing. And I thought, I'd really love to do that.
And at that time, and then I just thought, I'm going to do it. And I just came up with the name Brave in Paint. And I started appearing on live on Instagram, on my then Brave in Paint Instagram, which is now called From a Place of Wonder. And just talking about what I was thinking of doing. And I built a very small community.
Building the Teaching Business
I guess, because I then opened up a Facebook group and I remember how sick I felt at doing that. I was literally stacking the bread in Waitrose, feeling sick because I had just opened this Facebook group that anyone could join for free. And I ran it for two years and I'd show up once a week just talking about my process and what I was doing, showing my work. That was it. And obviously supporting them if they had any. We just shared things in the group.
But I was listening to Gay Hendricks sort of probably every day for a couple of weeks on my earbuds as I was doing the customer shop to motivate myself, you can do this. And so I did take that big leap and then I was doing that for two years. I mean, the timeline of it, I can't quite get right because I feel like after I opened that Facebook group, I left quite quickly, but I don't know if I did. So I'm not sure exactly what happened when, but essentially I did a course with Laura Phillips who's a launch expert and I did everything you're supposed to do but very slowly.
In fact she told me after I launched it she thought I was going to be one that didn't do it, the last one to do it but actually in that group I did really well and she said it was amazing your launch and it was lovely because the way she did it and taught us to do it which I wouldn't even be able to remember quite how to do now. It was really fun because when I was literally opening cart, I had this sound where people were buying my course, where it would go, ching, ching, ching, ching...
And of course I was crying happy tears and it was just wonderful. And I'd only launched my first course which was experimental still life. And I was actually, and this is really important to me, I was not teaching anything I didn't know. I was taking students through exactly the process that I had been learning. So I was going through exactly the process that the students were going through and a lot of those students are still with me today they still come back as alumni or whatever and go through it again with me which is just so lovely.
Eli: That's amazing. So the teaching has been concurrent with your fine art and you do sell your work as well?
Gabriella: I do I mean the teaching came probably around about 2020 and I started to try to be serious fine artist in 2018, so there was two years. So I did an art fair and I sold work there and I built my website and started selling a bit here and there on that and that's sort of snowballed now. I don't sell masses on my website but I do have a couple of galleries now and sometimes students buy my work which is really lovely and of course I've got my teaching as well so I manage to make ends meet just about, that's all I'll say.
The Multi-Stream Approach
Eli: Yeah, I think that really is a skill that a lot of artists don't really like. They feel bad because they have to do teaching or they have to do something else and it feels like... But I think that is the beauty of a career in the arts is that you can have all of these different streams of income, which means that you're not then reliant on being able to produce a piece of work in order to keep the lights on.
And I don't know about you, but I find very much that my production of final artwork goes up and down. Like some years I'm incredibly prolific and I can produce a huge amount of work. And other years are more about that information gathering and composting and I'll do stuff in my sketchbook but I'm not really producing anything proper. But if I relied 100% on just selling paintings for my income, those years would be horrifying and I wouldn't be able to be creative because I'd be so terrified.
Gabriella: Exactly. That's the thing. You have to be an entrepreneur. You really do. You've got to have a few balls in the air. You just do. I mean, I've got a few things like I sell the odd print on Artfully Walls, so that gives me a little bit of money every month. I've got a greeting card presence on a website called Thoughtful, which I haven't done anything new for for ages and I need to do that. So that gives me a little bit every month, but again, it's a really tiny amount. It's something, it's an opportunity that I could make a lot more of if I had time to get around to it, which is what I really want to do. But I've got lots of ideas.
I do love doing hand lettering with ink and I really would love to do a whole range of cards that is just words with some decorative illustration around it. So I've still got that in me and I will do it at some point.
Eli: Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. When you're not limiting yourself, you can also explore all these avenues. And as we were saying earlier about following those threads of curiosity, you never know when one might just be a fun experiment or it could turn into an income stream. It could turn into just another string to your bow. I think that's really fun.
The Creative Process
So let's have a look at how you actually make your work? Because your work, particularly your still life work, I could just gaze at your still life paintings for hours. The way that you put the colour together, the way that you use light is just, oh, it's delicious. I want to lick them.
Gabriella: You're welcome. You'll have to come over here.
Eli: I'll pop by one day. I'm here to lick your paintings. Can you talk us through your process of creating a painting, like what are the first marks you make? What's the how long does it take? How do you know when it's finished? Talk us through a painting.
Gabriella: That's a tough one, how do I know it's finished? I can tell you how I start them usually. I will always, even if a canvas is gessoed, I'll always rough it up with a bit more gesso. I might sometimes add paint to gesso, but I'm sure I recently read you're not meant to, but anyway, I don't know why. I don't see why. I do.
And then I tend to have this arm action which I really enjoy is just it's just creating wild circles really I just scribble I love that feeling of scribbling paint over and then sometimes I might get a metal scraper I've got one here but I know listeners can't see but like this which is really fine and I might if I want a smooth surface if I'm working on wood for example and I want it to be quite smooth I will scrape the paint down so I might use a lot of paint initially and then scrape it flat or I might just have it quite dry brush. So it really depends on how I'm feeling, but it's always an organic fun process. So that will involve probably initially just one colour, let that dry and then I'll introduce, I'll work out a colour palette. Colour is so important to me. That's my starting point. So my colour palettes will either come from looking at something in my wardrobe, like that shirt I'm wearing. For example, I mostly think, oh, I really want to paint something that's based on this colour palette and introduce a few other colours. Or I might flick through an interiors magazine, which I love doing. And then I'll just choose my favourite page, just basically go, oh, that's delicious. I just love those colours.
And then I will go away and I'll work out how to mix them. And then I'll make the jam jars of paint so that I have those colours. And it really helps me to have enough paint for something that I know is going to be larger if it is larger. And if it's going to be smaller, and I'm working on a series, I might want to do say four or five, whatever paintings in that colour palette. So I've got my jam jars and I know I've got enough paint and I'm not gonna have to keep remixing to get the same colours. Obviously within those colours, you then intermix them. So you get more harmonious colours. So that's a really fun way for me to do it.
Then I have to make the decision, what is this going to be? Is it going to be an intuitive painting or is it going to be, and obviously at the time I'm thinking about that as I go, creating the background with a variety of colour and perhaps at that point thinking about composition, depending on what I'm doing, whether it's going to be, if it's going to be purely intuitive, then I'll be very free and I'll then I'll let that dry and I'll just respond to what I'm seeing there.
And if it's more about, if it's more an observational thing, then obviously I will, I might look and see, well, I've got a dark background and I've got a light table. So I'm going to concentrate on the darker colours at the top and lighter colours at the bottom or something, and maybe just add a little, because it's really nice to have to link colour from all areas so that your eyes dot around. So if I've got a dark green background, I will either have, I'll probably have a dark green cup or some vessel that's got that colour in it in the lighter section or something like that so yeah it depends on the subject as to where I lay the colour perhaps but sometimes I don't think about it too much really.
Eli: And what about finishing?
Gabriella: It's always tricky. It is really tricky and I am very prone to over working things. I love how paintings look when they're unfinished, I just do and it's really hard for me to stop at that point, because I feel like it's not enough. And that's my own personal battle, because I think I mentioned to you, or you read about me that I was saying how the best paintings emerge sometimes.
Eli: Yes, yeah.
Gabriella: And there's one behind me, which I know, again, listeners can't see, but that, if you can see it, I don't know if I can, this giant flower. And that was that literally that I would say emerged from me. I didn't know I was going to paint it. So I'd pre prepared the background in just a simple peach colour, which I'd scraped and brushed. And it's a big canvas. It's probably about one hundred and twenty by ninety or something like that. For me, that's pretty big. Yeah. And I just I was just in a really great mood and I was painting something else and I had all this lilac paint and a great big thick brush. And I just got an urge to just paint. I just got, dipped my paint brush in and I just did this with my arm and this amazing weird flower just came out of me and I just love it. And it's nothing like anything else I have, but I just love it. And to me it's a signpost.
And I think that there are many paintings in your life that you do that you just love and they're signposts. And you can go back and you revisit them and you think, oh yes, I remember how I felt when I did that. And I'm going to create a whole series based on, inspired by that. So those, I live for those moments when I get that feeling, it's just wonderful. So that is there to remind me what I'm aiming at. Because that is totally different from the painting I just finished two weeks ago or a week and a half ago. As I said, I still admire that painting, but I don't love it in the way I love that.
Eli: Yeah. Yeah, that's the particular sort of magic when stuff just sort of falls out of the end of the brush.
Gabriella: Yes.
Eli: You're like, oh, who did that?
Gabriella: Yes, it is. It is. It's an absolute gift and a total joy. It really is.
Eli: So, I love that. And I love what you said about loving unfinished paintings as well. I often I let the wall decide. So if I'm sort of I'm not quite sure if a painting is done or not, I'll turn it to the wall and I'll just leave it. Often for like months and months and months and quite often they just finish themselves while they're there.
Gabriella: You are a genius.
Eli: You're like, oh no, this is good, this is done.
Gabriella: That's brilliant. I wish that would work in my garage. I must have about 50 paintings in there that I look at and go, hmmm.
Eli: It doesn't always work. But yeah, magic painting elves that come into the studio at night finish things for you. That would be lovely, wouldn't it?
Balancing Business and Art
So as you are, you're a full-time artist, you're making your own work, you're selling your own work, you're also teaching other artists. How do you balance that sort of, oh my god, I just need to be by myself and paint urge with the, oh my god, I need to reply to all these emails and update my website and all of the things that your business needs to survive. How do you balance those two things?
Gabriella: Do you know what? I don't try. I think is the first thing that comes to my head. I don't try to balance them because I don't think that's really possible. I just know when I need to make time just for me, I think. It's more, I think, I feel, I think because I love what I do so much. It doesn't, it's not a massive problem. I do get stressed. Don't get me wrong, I really do get stressed, but it's usually over tech things and typos and, oh, I mean, I've do, it's that kind of thing that stresses me out.
It's, yeah, that's a really difficult question to answer because I'm not someone that plans, you see. I'm not a planner. I'm not a, I'm not, I'm a bit more, how do I feel today? What do I want to do? And I think that's partly learning about human design. I'm a four six. So I know I have an innate wisdom and I know that all of us have, we all have so much power inside us. If only we just stop and...
You know, I do meditate. I don't do it daily. I wish I did. I just forget. But I do, I write my pages and I do pray in a way.
Spiritual Connection
This is going to sound really strange, but I have a guardian angel, or as I'm sure I know I have. I read books about angels and then this is really, really, this is really personal. I was a few years ago, I was really, because I was brought up as a Catholic and I went to a convent school and I always felt that there was God there and I was sort of searching for the truth of that and I was reading about angels and just thinking how lovely that was and wouldn't it be wonderful to just be able to see your angels and I thought no actually I think I'd be a bit freaked out by that I'd be a bit scared.
I said it would be lovely to know you're there and then I just sat down and I was just on my own in the house I just sat down and I thought I'd better go on with some work and I started singing the Lord's Prayer. And immediately I was enveloped by the most amazing hug, like from floor to ceiling, and I'm getting goosebumps all over now. I can't describe, it was like being picked up and enveloped in the strongest and yet most gentle hug. And I just had tears pouring down my face and I said, thank you, thank you. And that to me is my guardian angel giving me a hug. It was just amazing.
And every time. And I don't have any doubt that there is another. I just have no doubt whatsoever that there's more than what we see. And this is the whole root of my From a Place of Wonder and why I'm so interested in the esoteric because it's connected and I am one of those people that is completely open to possibility. And I just know that we all have angels and there is a God or a God source or something. And I don't feel that astrology and tarot conflicts with that. I know there's a lot of people that are afraid of tarot cards, but I'm just, it's who's reading them, I think that's important.
Eli: Yeah, I feel like they're more just like tools for self exploration. It's just a resource.
Gabriella: Yes. I can't even remember what your original question was, but yes.
Eli: I'm just, I'm fascinated that you went there from my question. Fabulous.
Gabriella: I think I feel like you're someone I can really talk to about things like this.
Eli: I'm really touched by that. Thank you. Thank you.
Rituals and Workflow
So this is interestingly, actually, my next question is about sort of ritual. And if you have any sort of particular rituals that inform your art making or if there are any kind of, I don't know, workflows or...
Gabriella: I don't really have rituals that inform my art making. I think my rituals are all really for me. It's like the, I have a new moon and full moon practice that I do. But again, when I say practice, I do it sporadically. This is the thing with me. That word consistency is really, really problematic for me. I turn up for the things that I say I'm going to turn up for. I will always do that unless I'm ill. Otherwise, I will always do what I say I'm going to do. But as far as keeping myself in a specific routine, that is really hard for me. I found that very challenging and quite frankly boring. So I don't.
That's why I make, when I have the energy and I feel like, yes, I really want to meditate or yes, I really want to go and exercise or yes, I'll do it then. And I think that's the best way for me and probably a generator type, which I am to be is do what lights you up. What are you excited by today? It's absolute gift and this is what I love about being a freelancer and why I could never work in an office now. Is that freedom? Freedom is my absolute number one value. Just that's it.
Eli: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I think it takes quite a lot of sort of self-trust and self-compassion to be that, excuse me, to be that self-aware to be able to go okay well now today I feel like playing but I also trust myself enough that the things that need to get done will get done.
Gabriella: Yes. I think that's really beautiful. I always do the things. I mean I might like I say might make lots of typos at some point or send the wrong link.
Eli: Exactly, yes. I’m never such a good proofreader as the moment after I hit send.
Final Advice
So my final question to you this has been such an incredible conversation and I love the places that we have gone. My final question which is the one I ask everybody, is what advice would you give to anyone who is feeling the call to make their their creativity into their kind of full-time gig?
Gabriella: I would say you definitely can do it. Make sure you have enough money to support yourself while you're not earning any money from it and really spend every single minute you can exploring what you love to do. And think about the type of person you are as well. Imagine if you are in a busy office and you're thinking, I'd really love to go off and be an artist. Would you miss people? And if you would, think about the environment that you're going to be in when you're an artist. Should you be perhaps in a group studio? Would you love connecting with people? Even if you're in your own room, you might want to be with a collective so that you can converge in a space and talk to other artists. Or you might be like me and you might just be really happy on your own working way and just actually relish the silence or listening to whatever you want to listen to. And then connect in your spare time with people. So really be aware of who you are, I would say. Learn that as you're learning and developing your art.
Yeah, but having financially supported in some way is really important. It's so stressful and I've been there, I really have and sometimes I even go there now. Months are erratic. You have to have some kind of backup for yourself financially, just be practical in that sense.
Eli: Yes, it's very hard to create good work from a place of panic about whether or you can eat next week.
Gabriella: Exactly. The pressure, it just, it just not, it's not great for art. It really isn't. That's really, really sound advice. Thank you so much. This has been such a wonderful conversation. I'm so glad I reached out to you and I'm so glad that you said yes. And thank you so much for your, your time, your wisdom, your insight and your glorious enthusiasm. It's been a joy.
Gabriella: Thank you so much, Eli. I've loved it. I hope I didn't talk too much.
Eli: You've been fantastic, I love it. Thank you.
Closing
Wasn't that fab? I did not expect to go all the places we went, but I'm so glad we went there. Thank you so much, Gabriella, for a fascinating conversation. I hope you all at home enjoyed it as much as I did. Don't forget, if you want to find out more about Gabriella and you're interested in seeing her work and finding out all about her, then you need to come over to the show notes, which you'll find at Zuzu's Haus of Cats. That's haus, H.A.U.S.com forward slash podcast and that's where you'll not only find the show notes for today's episode you'll also find all of our previous episodes as well so you can dig in and catch up on anything you might have missed.
Thank you so much for listening and I will see you in the next episode. Bye!