Ep #9: Studio journals, sea swimming, and sensory memory - with artist Tara Leaver

Podcast

Jun 24

This week I'm absolutely delighted to share my conversation with Tara Leaver, an artist and educator whose journey back to creativity after depression is both inspiring and deeply relatable.

Tara and I first connected back in 2016, and what I've always loved about her approach is how she teaches the often-overlooked elements surrounding art-making - the mindset work, the process development, and crucially, how to find your own artistic voice rather than simply copying your teachers.

In this episode, we dive deep into Tara's fascinating dual practice of making sea-inspired paintings in Cornwall whilst simultaneously supporting other creatives through courses and mentorship. She's refreshingly honest about the challenges of context switching between these two sides of her work.

What really captivates me is how Tara translates her sensory experiences of swimming in the cold Cornish sea into her paintings. Her process is a beautiful marriage of visual reference and sensory memory. We also unpack her concept of the "Happy Artist" - which isn't about perpetual joy, but rather about being an artist within the full context of human life.

As Tara puts it, we're not creating in bubbles; we're artists with lives that happen outside the studio, and acknowledging that context is crucial for sustainable creative practice.

UPDATE: Tara talks about her struggles with context-switching in this episode, but since this conversation she’s found something that really works - 90 minute sessions! She’s written all about it here.

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 Tara:

Tara is an artist and teacher whose work combines a passion for sea swimming, deep thinking, and helping other artists to thrive in the lives they already have. She lives in a barn on a clifftop in Cornwall with her fluffy rescue dog, Poppy, and makes watery paintings about her sea swims and coastal living in her garden studio.

She creates online courses for artists who are ready to go beyond the influence of those who've taught them to develop a process and practice that feels rich and satisfying, while strengthening their own unique artist voice and the confidence to share their work in the world, their way.

For her art:

Visit Tara’s art website here
And find her on Instagram

For her teaching:

Find Tara’s teaching website here
Her blog post about keeping a studio journal
And find her teaching Instagram here

Introduction
Hello and welcome to Zuzu's Haus of Cats Presents. I'm your host, artist Eli Trier, although you can call me Zuzu. 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.
Hi everyone. Thank you so much for tuning back in to Zuzu's Haus of Cats Presents. Today the House of Cats is proud to present Tara Leaver, who is a glorious artist and a teacher and the founder of the Happy Artist Movement. Tara, I think you should just jump in and introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you.
Guest Introduction
Tara: Thanks, Eli. Thank you very much for having me. I've really been looking forward to this chat. I was always just a very creative person, even from little, very typical, loved making things with my hands, art and crafts and anything I could get my hands on. And that is definitely still true.
I was making art quite a lot up until early 20s and I have quite a long history of depression, which thankfully I haven't experienced now for over, I think it must be about 16 years now. It's not really in my system anymore, but it was quite front and centre for a long period, sort of 20s and 30s. So the art, as I think a lot of us might recognise, when you've got health issues or mental health issues, the creativity is the first thing that goes away.
I think there were times actually where I just kind of forgot that that was even a thing that I'd ever done or that it was an option or it just wasn't there. It was sort of dormant. And I think a lot of artists also worry that when it goes away, you'll never get it back. But my experience is that it goes dormant. It doesn't die. It just needs the conditions to come back.
I had started doing other work and I was travelling. I did Montessori teaching, so kind of a really windy path. I was living in London, born and brought up in London. And then I moved down to Hove, which is a city by the sea on the south coast of England. That was after quite a bad breakdown, probably the worst actually. And then that move was about me getting better.
Part of the getting better was that I remembered that I liked art. And as soon as that door kind of creaked open, it all just came rushing back in and I just couldn't get enough and I was trying everything. That was around the time when people were blogging about art and there weren't that many online courses around, a few. But when I discovered that I was literally insatiable. I just was taking courses and you know how we all kind of used to do blog hops and talk to each other about blogs. Feels like a million years again.
So I was really getting into that and getting my art back and remembering who I was as an artist. And then, yeah, just healing. I was doing a lot of healing work from the depression side of things.
The Teaching Journey Begins
After a few years, I then came down to Cornwall. And that's when the art that I make now really started coming out. And also, well, back when I was in Hove, I also started teaching online. That was back in 2013. I didn't think that was a thing that I wanted to do or could do. I was like, had all the imposter syndrome about it. I don't have a degree, I can't teach. I mean, I could teach three year olds because of Montessori, but I'm not sure about adults. That's a bit of a different beast. Although not that different in some ways, I guess, but I was very resistant.
It was suggested to me by a mentor at the time. And I was just like, don't be ridiculous, I can't possibly do that. And then of course, because she'd dropped the pebble in, I then kept noodling on it and got more and more curious. And then I thought, well, I'll give it a go. So I made a course and it went really well. And then just, it's just sort of been going from there.
I found that I really, I love to make art. That's always kind of the primary central thing, but I also really love supporting other artists as well. I didn't really expect that. Because I was doing that sort of intense healing work and also a massive, massive introvert, I wasn't really keen on doing sort of in-person or group things and being able to do it behind the screen, so to speak, and still be able to see the work that I was making having an impact on people, that was game-changing for me.
So I was just teaching. I've been teaching all this time online and then moved to Cornwall and then did a year-long mentoring course, and that really changed a lot for me in terms of how I saw myself as an artist, what I believed was possible for me. Then I started selling my work through galleries, and now I run the two sides of my business, or the two businesses, depending on how you think about it, sort of concurrently. And I've been doing that ever since.
Teaching Philosophy and Approach
Eli: That's amazing. There's so much in there that I want to unpack. I first met you in the context of you being like an art teacher or a teacher of creative stuff. I think it was back in 2016. So long ago. What I always loved about the way that you taught around art was that it was less about sort of teaching people how to make art like you did and more about... One of the courses that I took from you, which I loved, was about how to abstract a piece of work more and like things that you could do to abstractify it. You talk a lot about sort of the combination of mindset and process. I know you're working on one at the moment, which is about creating arts in a collection. Those are sort of skills that they're not so much about the practical application of paint on canvas or whatever, but they're actually about this whole kind of surrounding elements of art, which I think gets missed out a lot in a lot of art courses.
Tara: I love that you picked that up because that was something I discovered quite early on because I was doing all those courses at the beginning and I was learning from lots of different teachers and I would notice that quite understandably by the end of any given course, everything I'd made looked like the teacher's work.
That is not a criticism, that's kind of how it works. And I think there's a lot of value in that as well. I don't think that that's wrong. But I personally was finding it very frustrating that I was making a lot of work, but I couldn't quite find myself in it in a way I felt like I wanted to. I wasn't really sure what was mine and where the line was between what was inspiration or influence and then what was actually coming through me almost separately from that.
So I got really interested and curious in how I might unpack that a bit and just discern for myself so that I could strengthen my own voice as an artist and not be always borrowing from the people who inspired me or who taught me.
That's when the course that you did, that was called Abstractify, which is a word I made up. But I think it does the job. That wasn't my first course. But I think by that point, I'd really recognised that the way that I wanted to teach was not going to be "and now you're going to paint a landscape in oils and I'm going to show you step by step how to do it."
That's never actually been very interesting to me. And I felt quite had some imposter syndrome about that as well, because I felt like well, a proper art teacher teaches you how to paint something, you go away with something at the end of it. And I was like, but I don't do that. And also I don't see anyone else doing the thing that I want to do that makes most sense to me.
That's actually been true all along. And it's been quite a big challenge for me sort of in the background. And in a way, a creative challenge, which I love, because it's like, how can I get this across? How can I make this useful for people?
Teaching as Learning
Eli: Do you find that teaching other people this kind of stuff, like teaching other artists to kind of focus on mindset, do you find that you're teaching yourself at the same time as you're going along? One of the things that I found with sort of doing YouTube videos and that kind of thing is that it helps clarify my thinking in a way that I wouldn't necessarily do by myself. And I'm curious if you found something similar with teaching these courses.
Tara: Yeah, I think it's interesting because I don't teach step by step how to tutorial type stuff. We do have a little bit of that in my courses, but that's not the main focus. But it has shown me more than anything, I think, supporting other artists that we all come up against the same what I call demons, which is just a word that I coined because it makes me laugh. It kind of lightens the situation because we can get bogged down in a lot of the mindset stuff. And while I don't love the word mindset, but we all know what that is. It's a very used term now.
But the demons, what it has shown me is that we all have similar versions of the same ones, we all run up against imposter syndrome. Sometimes we all have self doubt we all are quite critical of our own work in many ways. Uncertainty, fears about people seeing our work, fears about people not seeing our work. You know, it's like the whole thing. There's so many different demons.
So I think helping people the way that I have done it, which has been such a sort of organic unfolding, it wasn't something I planned from the beginning. So it's kind of been me making it up as I go along. Not sure if I should admit to that really. But it's been very much helping other people has shown me where we're all the same. And also that's helped me to develop courses and write blog posts and emails and stuff that can unpack that for people and help them to find their own way through it without me saying, do this, then do this, then do this. It's more like, here's the thing, let's look at it. Let's look at it from different angles. Let's pull it apart a bit. And then make of it what you will sort of thing.
What I love about that is that it really ties into a strong value for me of autonomy and independence and freedom of expression, which I think is at the base of all of us who are actively creative. We're trying to express something. And that's why so many of us run into that thing I was talking about before of being like, yes, I can make this work that looks like someone else's, but what's mine?
Eli: I love that. And I think it's so much more helpful and valuable than a step by step formula. Those never work, particularly for people who are creative and who are trying to think outside the box, like to do something just by following somebody else's formula is never going to be satisfying.
Eli: Exactly. Although I do think I go back and forth about this because I completely agree with you. But I also think there's some value when you're really right at the beginning, you're just starting, you don't know up from down, having somebody just say, do this, do this. I mean, it depends. If it's painting, that's pretty much how we all learn to paint after the wild abandon of childhood, where everything is a masterpiece. But once the kind of self-consciousness kicks in, it can be helpful to have someone say, this is how we do values and composition, and this is why we need this, and this is how to make a painting work.
But then I think once you've got those basics down, and I'm not even going to say having mastered them. I don't think I mastered the basics. I don't think any of us mastered them. But once you, I think, step by step things can be useful in that beginning phase, is what I'm saying. And then as soon as you can get away from that, that's for me, at least, where all the kind of juicy stuff that looks and feels like you lives.
The Sea as Creative Inspiration
Eli: So talking about stuff that looks and feels like you. Your work, particularly since you've moved down to Cornwall, is very much connected with your experience of the sea and being by the coast. I know you do sea swimming. Do you do it all year round?
Tara: I want to say yes, because that would be much cooler. That was the intention initially. I don't swim year round at the moment, no. I actually haven't swum for a few months, which I've just been thinking a lot because the sun's come out today and it's actually feeling quite warm and springy. I'm hoping to get back in the water soon. Of course, March is literally the coldest time of year because you're just coming off the winter. But yeah, when I moved down here, I started swimming in an outdoor swimming pool and then I graduated to the sea and since then I just haven't moved back and it's really informed almost the entire body of work I've made since then.
Eli: So how do you translate those experiences back into your work? So you're out swimming in the sea, and you take a lot of photographs, underwater photographs and things like that. How does that then translate into the paintings and the work when you're back in the studio, dried off, warm again?
Tara: I'd say it's probably two main things, maybe three. So obviously I've got my visual references, which as you say, I take photos and video under the water. I got my parents to give me a really nice underwater camera because the first one I was using, it was okay, but it wasn't great. It was like a GoPro, but not, you know, like a fake GoPro. So limitations.
And then so I upgraded to a new camera. And that means that I can get really crisp, beautiful underwater footage, at least good enough to make my art. I mean, not make a movie with it, but that made a huge difference because I can catch them and I can get video and everything. So there's the visual references. So I will take lots of video and lots of photos and then sometimes I'll print them out, some of them out when I get back or I use them sometimes straight from the screen. I also have been known to bring pieces of seaweed back to the studio. There's lots of little crispy things lying around, which obviously they wake up when you put them back in water. So that's very helpful if I'm looking to get the movement.
And then the other main part is the sensory memory. And I lean very heavily on that because I discovered quite early on that I want the painting to be, I want them to be about the sensory experience of being in cold salt water. I mean, it's not even comparable to like a warm sea. It's very much its own experience. The Cornish sea.
So when I started swimming in the sea, it really, I mean, I've been in the sea before, but I think it just became quite an obsession. And I really started to notice how it was impacting all my senses and the kind of 360 experience I was having every time I went in and how I was very keenly aware of how I felt before, during and after. And I just felt very compelled to bring all that into the paintings in some way.
I had no real idea how I was going to do that. And to be honest, I think I could spend the rest of my life trying to do it and still not quite get what I'm trying to do. But I think that's part of the joy of it. We're always seeking to express something that maybe can't be fully expressed. Just translate it as best we can.
So I lean very heavily on the sensory experience and the sensory memories. And I can call those in because I've done it so much now. I can call them in quickly and just sort of almost be there while I'm still in the studio. And then I've got my visual references and then I've got the idea. And sometimes that's something that comes to me while I'm swimming. And sometimes it comes to me at other times. Sometimes I'll percolate the idea for months and months before it comes through. Sometimes it's like, yeah, here's the idea, let's go.
So it's kind of those three components, I guess.
Creative Process and Materials
Eli: That's fascinating. And how does that work in terms of tell us a little bit more about your actual physical process of creation. What materials are you reaching for? Are you planning work? Are you working in series? Is it completely organic? Or do you go in with an idea of what you're trying to do for a particular collection? There's like 15 questions in one.
Tara: It all makes sense to me. It's all good. It's kind of something that I've developed over time, as I think all artists do. And I don't always do it exactly the same way, but I do have like a basic process that I tend to follow. And I've just started a new collection. I just went down to have a quick look at the first layer before we started talking, as you do, just to see what was happening.
So what I typically will do is I work mostly on a wood panel and I don't prime it, which people always seem to find quite curious, but I really like that the paint is uncontrollable at that stage. If I primed it, I'd be much more in control. And I also like that because of that whole sensory vibe that I'm having as I go along, it's like, I don't want anything between me and nature. I don't want primer between me and the raw wood. I want it to be as meshed together as possible. And it really sort of gives that immediacy as well that you feel from the cold water, you've got the immediacy of the raw wood.
So I'll get multiple panels, lay them out, tends to be in a big circle. And then I'm in the middle with all my materials. I use mostly acrylics and watercolour. I've always used mixed media, but I use it differently now than I used to. So it used to be very much a kind of multi-layered, like endless layers. And now it's much more paired back. And sometimes the wood shows through, which I really like.
And so I'll start with very liquidy layers. I dilute them down very, very watery and just pour and spread and splash. And that's a really fun kind of wild, expressive, uncontrolled. I just like to start that way because inevitably later on, I will end up getting tighter and tighter. And I try to avoid that for as long as possible.
Eli: There's a quote by Kierkegaard that I have on my studio wall which says, you can tame a wild goose but you can't make a tame goose wild.
Tara: Oh, I love that. Yes, that's exactly it. Exactly. If you start too tight too soon, you're going to get in trouble. Unless that's your style of art, obviously, but it's not mine. So I'm always on this quest to keep it feeling how it feels when I'm in the water. And obviously that isn't uncontained, ever moving. Even when it's still it's moving, it's very difficult to translate.
But that's kind of using the materials to echo or imitate the experience of being in the water helps a lot. And that was something that a tutor suggested to me a few years ago, and that's been really great.
And then as each layer dries, because obviously, it's very liquidy, so I have to leave it to dry, then it dries a lot fainter, do some more layers. But I'm also really mindful of not making it too thick because again, it's about this experience of... people won't be able to see this, but my hands are constantly, just notice trying to get that feeling of being in the water and just using the materials to do that, but also keeping it very light because light is a huge part of swimming in the sea. It's a huge part of life in Cornwall because we're basically bordered on three sides by sea. So the light is really good here. And just trying to bring that in as well.
And then later on, as the layers build up, but not very much, then I'll start to bring in more detail and perhaps pieces of seaweed or shells. I try to keep it quite abstract, but inevitably, representational things do come in. And I kind of just let them because it's not just about me dictating what's going to happen. Like it's a collaboration. The painting has stuff it wants to say and I want to be working with it.
So yeah, does that answer your question?
Eli: Absolutely. And I always love asking artists about their process because that's when they get completely animated. Like you say, your hands are waving around everywhere. It's wonderful. It's so interesting to hear how it all comes about. And I love this idea that you're recreating a full sensory experience, sort of for yourself as well, like playing with the water and the layers and the light and everything. And then also sort of encapsulating that in one sense, like you're just, it's just visual. I think that's absolutely fascinating. And I think you do it remarkably well. Like your paintings are very much like being in the sea.
Tara: Thank you, that means a lot because when you're sort of beavering away in the bubble of the studio, you don't always really know if you've quite, if it's going to connect the way you hope it's going to. So it's interesting to hear that people see that or they feel it even better if they feel it.
Eli: Yeah, they remind me very much of Cornwall. I spent a lot of my sort of late teens, early twenties living down in Cornwall and they really capture that sort of cold but beautiful sparkliness of Cornwall.
Tara: That makes sense. Yeah, that is exactly what it's like.
Balancing Art and Business
Eli: So you spend your time painting, obviously, but also doing this teaching work and creating in terms of building courses and writing and guiding resources to guide other artists through their own creative practice. How do you balance those two things? Are they complementary? Do you get frustrated with the context switching? How does that look in reality?
Tara: Let's just say I'm not... Someone once described balance to me as balance is constant motion. I think that's what they said. I always think of that because that's very much my experience as well. It's not like... today I do this and then I divide my time equally between the two or anything like that.
And I do find context switching really difficult, even throughout the day. I've just noticed that in recent years, actually. I don't know if I've always had it, but just transitioning from one part of the day to the next could be quite challenging. I don't know what that's about.
So switching from painting mode to business mode or computer mode or teaching mode, I find that very difficult. And I've tried lots of different things to make sure that both get honoured. And to be perfectly honest, it doesn't work that often. Because I think it's because for a long time, the teaching has been the bulk of my income. And so it's just demanded more of my time and energy and headspace. And I think the headspace part is crucial, because even if you're not doing the thing, you're thinking about the thing. And I'm always thinking about painting as well, but the painting has taken more of a backseat than I'd like in some periods.
So I'm always working to try and balance that out. So I've tried things like time blocking and all these different things that productivity things are suggested. And I just can't, I can't, and I don't know if that's just the way my brain works or because I'm a Pisces or what it is. But yeah, I find it difficult. I really do. And it's something I'm always working on, I guess.
So what I typically do at the moment is because the way I need to be in myself to paint is not something that I can switch on and off. So I tend to leave that to the weekends at the moment because then I know that I'm not thinking about work work. and then I'll do a lot of my computer work during the week. But then sometimes I will paint during the week if I find I've got a morning or an afternoon of time that will not be interrupted by anything and I don't have any deadlines looming or something that really needs doing, because that will just hassle me in the studio and then I can't get into the right place.
So yeah, I have not mastered it. Sorry about that.
Eli: I was hoping you'd have some powers of wisdom because it's certainly something, I mean, I'm only running the one business. And still I find the balancing of the making of the work and the marketing of the work to be a constant, there's constant tension there.
Tara: Yes, that's a good way to put it. It's a constant tension. And I think also there are good things about it as well because being a practicing artist and helping artists, there's a lot of crossover there. So a lot of the time when I'm in process, I'm thinking, oh yeah, this is something I could write about in an art note, which is the emails that I write to people who are interested in the teaching side of my work. So there are definite benefits to it bleeding together in different ways, but in terms of what my brain needs to be doing at any given time, I do find that challenging.
The Happy Artist Movement
Eli: So following on from that quite nicely, actually, one of the terms that you've sort of coined throughout your career is this idea of the happy artist. So can you explain that a little bit for us and sort of how has that concept evolved throughout your career?
Tara: I sometimes rue the day that I came up with that. I just don't really like to put things in boxes a whole lot, which I'm sure is evident by now. It came to me, it was 2016, I was sitting on a sofa, sort of musing on the meaning of life and stuff and what I was here for and what felt meaningful to me to do and where I wanted my work to go and things. And the phrase happy artist just sort of dropped in. And I think it's significant for me personally, because for a long time I wasn't one. I didn't, I wasn't happy and I wasn't making art. And then, getting the art back, it just really opened my life up like a flower and it's just been constantly unfolding since then in really beautiful ways.
But the thing about the words happy artists is I think I sometimes wonder, no one's ever said this to me, but I sometimes wonder if it comes across as a little bit fluffy, like, oh yeah, happy artists, everything's fine and lovely. And it's like, actually, no, this is based on a bedrock of we're not happy all the time. We're not always happy in the studio.
And then, how can we still get to be the artists we want to be and be practicing, be thriving, be fulfilled while the world is as it is, or we've got personal stuff going on. We are artists in a context. And I think that that is a conversation I don't see happening a lot.
People talk about being an artist and it's like, oh, you're in this beautiful little bubble of your art world and whatever. And that sounds lovely. And sometimes that is true, but the greater truth is that we are all artists with lives that go on outside the studio. And sometimes those are going to, what happens outside the studio is going to impact what happens in the studio. And if we don't take into account that context, it can make being an artist really difficult in my experience. And I observed also, lots of other people have had that too.
So the idea of the happy artist thing was really about how can we be happy artists, how can we feel good about the work that we make and feel like we're fulfilling something important to us and meaningful in our lives while also being humans in this greater context?
So that's kind of what it means to me. Funny enough, I don't really know what it means to other people in terms of how they read it when I'm talking about it. I don't know if they necessarily get that there's all that stuff behind it. I do talk about that, but I'm always very aware, I'm very word oriented as much as I'm image oriented. So I'm always very aware of the words I'm using and I just sometimes wonder if maybe I haven't been able to think of anything better. And obviously it'd be a branding nightmare to change it.
Eli: That's the pain when you've been doing something for so many years, isn't it?
Tara: Yeah, I think people perhaps know me for that and stuff. But I think it's more complex than it perhaps might seem on the surface. And it's quite difficult to get that across.
Eli: No, I really love that explanation that you've just given us because there's so much, I think it stands as a really valuable counterpoint to there's so much bullshit around being an artist. There's so much cultural conditioning around what an artist is or how to be a real artist. It's something that we've talked about in the past with demystifying the artist project and that kind of thing. And I think understanding that there are as many different ways to be an artist as there are ways to be a person and bringing that, like we're all artists in context. I think that is such a valuable point. The artist that is happy picking up a sketchbook for 15 minutes every morning is a different happy artist to the one who does nothing for months and then has a huge creative period. It's all valid, it's all contextual, it all depends on what's going on in your life at the time.
Tara: Exactly, it's very helpful to hear you reflect that back actually. I haven't really thought about it in those specific terms but that's exactly it. We create our own happy artist life. I'm not telling anyone what it means to be a happy artist. I can't possibly know that for you but I can share principles or ideas and then you go away and my dream is always that whatever I present or offer people will go away and make it their own exactly the way that I hope the artists will make their art their own as well. It's the same thing.
Eli: I love that there's so much agency and autonomy kind of baked into what you're doing I think that's unusual and remarkable.
Working Patterns and Rituals
Eli: So we've talked about this a little bit with sort of balancing your creativity and your business kind of side of things or, not balancing as the case may be. But do you have like a sort of typical day or a typical week? What does your sort of work life look like?
Tara: Not really. I just resist routine so much. I kind of don't help myself a lot in that regard, I think. Inevitably, there are patterns of things that happen. Like every week I will be doing certain things like I write art notes, I write studio notes, which are emails I write to my collectors. I might write blog posts. I do a lot of writing, email and all sorts of things. I love writing. Then there's studio time. And if I'm creative, I usually have at least one, maybe more like three or four large projects on the go at any given time.
So I'd say my life is extremely full and in a creatively rich way and that can be quite challenging to navigate but I love that, I also thrive on it but it means that I can switch between different projects I can, I have to go deep with something but then once I've done that I can then go deep with something else and it really depends on any given week or day what's most pressing and what needs attention and what I feel like doing. It's kind of a weird combination of that.
Eli: I love that. And what freedom to be able to build your life in such a way that you can do that.
Tara: It's easy to get actually, I think that when you're self-employed, yeah, there's a lot of challenges that come that you don't have if you're employed by an employer, but there's also so much freedom and that's just invaluable to me. I just couldn't live any other way really
Eli: So do you have, with this kind of loose schedule that you are kind of following, sort of following your nose in a way, like doing what feels good at the time or what has to be done that particular day. And I work in a very similar way. Do you have any sort of specific rituals or workflows? Do you have sort of a transition ritual for when you're kind of moving into working on your arts? You have a studio that's outside of your house in your garden, don't you? So I'd imagine the journey to the studio kind of fulfils that.
Tara: The long commute to the bottom of the garden. Well, actually, you'd think that that would be a good opportunity to switch, but I can just as easily go down there and still be thinking about what I was doing up at the house. So I mean, I'm not really one for ritual, but I've been thinking about this a lot recently because last year I started a studio journal and I'd never really done that before as much as I love to write. I really, and I write a journal every night for personal use, whatever, but I'd never really married that up with being in the studio. So I did it out of curiosity, which is how most things I do start.
And it's been amazing. So in terms of transitioning me, I can go down there, I can get out my studio journal, I can write the date, what the weather's doing, how I feel, whatever I want to record. And then I might jot a few notes. I'll look over what I did previously and maybe make some notes about that, write about what I want to do today.
And then at the end of the session, sometimes I do forget, but at the end of the session, I can then write about what happened and how I felt about it, any notes I want to remember to take forward into the next session. It's just amazing just to have it bookend the session and also have that to refer back to. So I've really been preaching a lot to people about studio journals lately because it's just it makes such a difference. And actually in the course I'm running at the moment, having a studio journal is a big part of that and students are finding it really useful as well.
So I think it's another one of those things that you can really make your own. So the concept is there. But how you work that out for yourself according to how your process is.
Eli: That's a really cool idea. I've tried to do studio journals, at various points, I tried doing one analogue, but I made it way too complicated. And I was like printing stuff out and sticking it in. And it was just, I think I managed about a week. And then I tried doing it in Notion, like a digital thing. And that felt completely divorced from the actual making of the art.
Tara: I would, I'm not good at digital sort of diaries and things like that, either. It needs to be pen and paper, needs to be that sense. I think this is the sensory things just to think of. But I think it's because I've talked to quite a lot of artists about this. And quite a few have said, Oh, yeah, I tried one I tried, I started one and it kind of petered out or I didn't put in it or it got too like you say, it got too complicated or whatever, became a thing. Whereas really, you want it to just be something that is supportive rather than the main attraction of being in the studio. I think, it can take a little minute to kind of work out what you want it for and how it's actually going to serve you. Because you don't want to do it just for the sake of, I've got a studio journal. It has to be doing something for you. It has to be supporting your practice and your process in some way. And that can take a bit of working out. But I've found it's really, it's been invaluable. And I'm going to keep going with mine.
Eli: What sort of stuff are you recording? Like in what way has it helped?
Tara: I think because it focuses my attention and it also means that things that I do or think in the moment are not getting lost to the mists of time. Like I can go back in and think, oh yeah, that was what I wanted this collection to be about. If I go way off track or, I sometimes write keywords of what I want paintings to feel like. So then I can check in on those. I can also track like because the weather has such a huge impact on how I feel day to day. And it's so changeable here as well. So you can be very up and down if you're really sort of at the mercy of it.
So just tracking that and seeing what I produce on a very sunny day and what I produce on a less sunny day. I don't go into that in too much depth, but it's just having some of that intel available so I can see where I've been and where I want to go. It just creates a thread really that, like you say, going down to the studio, it's like, that's how I click back into artist me and then click back.
Eli: That makes a lot of sense. Okay, you've inspired me. I'm going to try another go. If I can make it super, super simple.
Tara: I wrote a blog post about it with lots of tips. So I can send you a link to that.
Eli: Yes, please do. And I'll put that in the show notes for our listeners as well. Thank you.
Advice for Aspiring Artists
Eli: So if what advice would you give to any sort of aspiring artists who were interested in making sort of creativity their full-time gig? What do you wish you'd known right at the beginning of your journey?
Tara: I have many thoughts on this. I'll try to rein it in. I think the main thing I would say is you have to expect that it's going to change your relationship with your art. And I think that takes a lot of people by surprise because shifting from being an artist who makes art purely for the joy of it and being an artist who makes art and sells it is two completely different things. And actually the business side of things can really trip up a lot of artists. I think a lot of us find that quite challenging in different ways.
So I would say go in with the expectation that it's going to change. There are artists I know for whom it kind of ruins being an artist because the pressure is on to make the work or you're working to a deadline or you're now wondering what people are going to think and if they're going to like it if they're going to buy it and all this other stuff all these new demons start crowding in and then you're going to have to navigate through that as well.
I personally find that running a business as an artist is running a business is a very creative act in and of itself but you may need to find the ways that it's creative, because obviously some of it is drudgery. So there's some things you just don't necessarily want to do. And if you can get help with that, that's fantastic. But at the beginning, I think most of us probably can't afford to be hiring out work or getting a VA or whatever.
So I would say, yeah, expect it to just, it's going to shift how you interact with your art and yourself as an artist, and it's going to therefore interact with your identity, what you thought your identity was. and don't underestimate that that can have quite a significant impact. And I think, I mean, that's quite an abstract thing to say, but in practical terms as well, I don't think there's any shame in having another source of income while you build it up slowly, because if you cut everything off and just like you're back to the wall and you're like, oh, I've got to make this work, making art from a survival mode is really difficult because your creativity comes from a completely different place.
So you really want to be setting yourself up to win here. And then wherever that outside support, financial support is coming from, it really doesn't matter. I don't think there's any, people feel like it's cheating if their spouse is supporting them or that kind of thing. But I don't think it really matters. The point is that you have some support so that you can really focus on honing your voice, making a really solid body of work, something that you feel proud to share with the world. Something that feels like you, that's where I come in.
And yeah, and then just sort of build it up slowly. And if I can add one more thing, I would say multiple income streams. Because if you put all your eggs in one basket, man, the pressure of that is intense, and it makes everything much more difficult. Plus, we're creative beings, we want to do all the different things. And having different income streams means you can do a bit of this and a bit of that, and you have money coming in from different places. So that's three things. That's probably plenty.
Eli: That's fantastic. Brilliant advice. Thank you.
Current Offerings
Eli: So finally, I want to know, I want you to share a little bit more about the courses that you currently have on offer and what your, you have a membership. Is that correct?
Tara: I do. Yes. So there's the Happy Artist Studio, which is my membership. I'm actually, at the time we're recording this, I'm making some tweaks that I haven't told anyone about yet. Good tweaks, exciting tweaks. So that's going to slightly change in nature. But that is basically a place where you have access to all my courses, lots of other resources. I share lots of what I call Tara's studio diaries, which is where people get to come behind the scenes and see me talk about my process and make my work. And that's always gone down quite well, because I think we like to see, we like these insights into how other people are doing it.
So there's that. And then there's also a course I've just recently created and launched and I'm at the time of recording. We're coming towards the end of running the first session of that. That's called Creator Collection. Really excited about this one. It covers a lot of what we've talked about today in terms of developing your own practice, building that body of work that feels like you, having a studio journal, all sorts of things. And the students are really, they seem to be really getting a lot out of it. So I'm hoping to run that at least twice a year. So I'm thinking at the moment, I'll probably run that again in the autumn at some point.
And then I've got lots of other courses and mini workshops, all sorts of different things. I've got a very long standing blog on my teaching website that goes back to like, I think I started it in 2008. I don't know if the post still go back to that. They probably wouldn't be worth reading anyway, but there's lots of good stuff on there as well.
And I just recently started a YouTube channel, which is a creative experiment.
Eli: Oh, that's fantastic. I have to come and find you on YouTube. It's such a wonderful platform.
Tara: Oh, I'm obsessed. I got obsessed with it last year as a viewer. And then I started thinking, hmm, hmm. And then the cogs were turning and then it's not a teacher. It's not another teaching portal for me. It's very much like Tara Studio Diaries. It's behind the scenes stuff. And it's really a creative outlet for another creative outlet for me because I have time for that. But yeah, I always have lots of things going on and I like it that way. And sometimes it's overwhelming. So it's just working it all out as you go.
Where to Find Tara
Eli: So if people are interested in coming and finding out more about you, which I'm sure they will be, tell us where to find you on the Internet, your art and your teaching.
Tara: Yeah, I've got two of everything, so it's going to be a bit of a list. I'll give you some links for the show notes if that's helpful. I've got my own art. I make and sell my own art on my own website and I also sell through galleries and that's taraleeverart.com and then my teaching website is taraleever.com and then you'll find all the courses and the mentorship and everything on that site.
Then obviously there's my YouTube channel which is Tara Leaver artist on there. I've got two Instagram accounts. I'm actually thinking about maybe not having that for much longer. It's a lot of work. Especially if you want to do it justice and have these platforms actually have the effect that you want them to have. Different conversation. But yes, I'm on the Tara Leaver art for my own work and Tara Leaver, just Tara Leaver for the teaching side.
Eli: Brilliant. And what would you most like people to do after this? Come and sign up for emails, follow you on Instagram, find you on YouTube.
Tara: Well, if you're interested in how I operate as a teacher, I think art notes are the best way because I send them out most Mondays. I talk a lot about what we have talked about in terms of being an artist in context and ideas and things you can take to the studio. There's a mix of practical stuff and sort of more conceptual stuff and things to think about. People really love those. I get a lot of good feedback from those. I made them into a book as well. But I suggest just starting by signing up for Art Notes.
And then if you're interested in my own art and potentially purchasing my work, then I would sign up for my studio notes and that's on the other website. And people who sign up on my art website, you get a discount code for 15% off your first purchase.
Eli: That's very generous. Brilliant.
Closing
Eli: Well, thank you so, so much for being here with us today. It's been an absolute treat talking to you. And yeah, just lovely to hang out, really.
Tara: Thank you, isn't it? Especially after such a long time. Thank you so much for having me. I just, I always am very happy to talk about art and process and the behind the scenes and all that good stuff. So it's been really fun. Thank you.
Eli: I always have the best time speaking with Tara. I just love her thoughtfulness and the amount of care she brings to everything that she does. I find it so inspiring. Don't forget if you want to find out more about Tara, more about me, more about Zuzu's Haus of Cats then you can come over to zuzushausofcats.com. That's Haus H-A-U-S forward slash podcast. You'll find the show notes for this episode with all of Tara's links and all sorts of lovely stuff as well. So do pop over and say hi over there. And in the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this episode and I'll see you next time. Bye bye.