Our new podcast series, titled A Creative Practice, follows the writer and broadcaster Laura Barton as she journeys with six creative women to the places they find inspiring from a walled garden in Wales to the rugged coastline of Northern Ireland.
You can listen to the episodes here on the Magazine or download them from your usual podcast provider, using the buttons below.
Episodes will be released weekly. We hope you'll come back to listen.
A Creative Practice
1. Rebecca Salter
Rebecca is a painter and printmaker. She specialises in woodblock printing, combining Western and Eastern traditions. She is also a Royal Academician and holds the position of Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools. Laura met Rebecca in her North London studio, which overlooks the railway. With the aid of old photographs, Rebecca took Laura to Japan. Rebecca first travelled to Japan in 1979, attending the art school in Kyoto. Every year she returns.
2. Sarah Price
Sarah is a garden designer. She co-designed the gardens at London's Olympic Park and has twice won gold medals at Chelsea. She was trained in fine art and there is a distinct, painterly quality to her work. Laura travelled to Sarah's own walled garden in Monmouthshire a beautiful, Victorian garden which she inherited from her grandmother to discuss the garden's past and present and how it shapes her creative vision.
3. Fiona Graham-Mackay
Fiona is a portrait painter. Her work is regularly exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and her sitters have included Andrew Motion, Juliet Stevenson and the Royal Family, to name but a few. On a blustery day in autumn, Fiona took Laura to Rye harbour, where they walked amongst the boats, ran across the shingle, and talked about the importance of vast skies and the sea for a creative mind.
4. YolanDa Brown
YolanDa Brown is a saxophonist and composer. She has won the MOBO Best Jazz' Award twice and has collaborated with the likes of Jools Holland and Lemar. She is also a co-presenter on BBC Radio 4 Loose Ends. Laura met YolanDa in Alexandra Park, North London. There they discussed how the constant flux of London life inspires the breadth of YolanDa's musical range from reggae to soul. And how, just as the vibrancy of the city gives her great pleasure, so too does the quietness and calm of its green spaces.
5. Maggie O'Farrell
Maggie is the author of seven novels and winner of both the Somerset Maugham and Costa Novel Award. Born in Northern Ireland, she now lives in Edinburgh. Maggie took Laura to Little Sparta, the garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay, set in the Pentland Hills, south of the city. Finlay was a Scottish poet, writer and artist and, collaborating with stone carvers and sculptors, he created a truly original garden.
6. Hannah Peel
Hannah is a singer-songwriter and composer. She is a member of The Magnetic North and released her first solo album in 2016. She is also a regular presenter on BBC 6 Music. Hannah took Laura on a coastal walk, near to her new home in Bangor, Northern Ireland. Along the way they discussed Hannah's decision to settle in Bangor, the remarkable history of the town and how both the weather and landscape influence her work.
The podcasts are presented by Laura Barton, produced by Geoff Bird and conceived by Emily Cameron.
You can now listen to our second podcast series, The Unknown Path, and our third podcast series, The Making of a Pioneer.
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