The Creative Couch with Sam Marshall

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I’m joined by painter Laura Smith for the first in a new series of creative conversations with artists, friends and fellow creatives about their practice and creative lives.Although the podcast began with me responding to creative dilemmas sent in by listeners, it was always my intention to intersperse those episodes with longer, more open-ended conversations with other creatives, and I’m so happy to be starting that part of the podcast with Laura.Laura and I have known each other for years. We both studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and later at the Royal Drawing School, and in this conversation we settle in for a thoughtful, wide-ranging chat about painting, creativity, teaching and the realities of sustaining a creative life over time.We talk about studio life, living and working in London, balancing creative practice with other commitments, and our experiences of social media and Instagram as working artists. We also discuss painters we admire, including Giorgio Morandi, the importance of looking slowly, and the artists and exhibitions that have been inspiring us lately.Along the way, we share recommendations, reflections on teaching, thoughts on creative pressure, and some honest conversation about the quieter, less visible parts of maintaining an artistic practice.You can find Laura on Instagram at @Laurajrsmith.We’ll be returning to creative dilemmas next week, so if you’ve got a dilemma you’d like me to respond to, you can send it to [email protected].

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Dana, Lou and Alan – exploring the frustration of Instagram, the fear around raising prices, and the pressure of making the most of a creative opportunity.Dana runs a small creative business making lino prints inspired by coastal architecture and tide lines, and once found Instagram a really supportive place to share her work. But as the platform has changed, her reach has dropped, growth has stalled, and the pressure to keep up with reels, trends and constant posting has started to take over. What once felt like connection now feels like performance, leaving her questioning both her work and her place on the platform. How do you continue using Instagram without letting it drain your energy or define your sense of progress?Lou has been running creative workshops that are gaining momentum, with returning participants and fuller classes, but financially things aren’t adding up. After factoring in travel, materials and venue commissions, she’s barely paying herself, yet feels nervous about raising her prices in case it puts people off or disrupts the growth she’s seeing. When is the right time to increase your prices, and how do you do it without losing the people who already support you?Alan has rebuilt his creative practice later in life and is now developing his work through printmaking, selling at markets and running workshops. He’s recently been accepted onto an artist residency, giving him two weeks of dedicated time and space to make work. But instead of feeling free, he feels torn between planning too rigidly and risking failure, or going in unprepared and wasting the opportunity. How do you approach something like this without turning it into a test, and how do you balance structure with spontaneity?In this episode, I explore:• Why your relationship with Instagram matters more than the algorithm • How expectations around visibility and growth can quietly drain your energy • The difference between being busy and being financially sustainable • Why underpricing often comes from fear rather than strategy • How to approach opportunities without turning them into something to get “right” • Why structure and spontaneity aren’t opposites, and how they can support each otherEach dilemma is explored with both emotional insight and practical steps you can try in your own creative life.If you have a creative dilemma you’d like me to explore, please email me at:[email protected]

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Marilyn, Rachel and Jill – exploring the pressure to draw accurately, the weight of creative expectations after a big life change, and the paralysis that comes from overthinking and too many ideas.Marilyn has loved art her whole life but still feels held back by a voice that tells her her drawings must look exactly like what she sees. After discovering a more expressive way of working, something clicked, but she’s struggling to move away from accuracy and trust her own choices. How do you draw with confidence when you’ve spent years believing there’s a “right” way to do it, and how do you begin to work more freely with colour and mark-making?Rachel recently stepped away from a long and intense career to create more space for printmaking, but an upcoming exhibition has left her feeling overwhelmed rather than inspired. With her confidence shaken and pressure building, she’s questioning whether she’s ready at all, and feels she needs to create an entirely new body of work to prove herself. How do you approach opportunities like this without turning them into a test, and how do you move forward when everything suddenly feels like it matters too much?Jill has reached a stage in life where she finally has time to focus on her creativity, but instead of making, she finds herself stuck in overthinking. With multiple mediums, endless ideas, and questions around time, purpose and choosing the “right” project, she hasn’t started anything at all. How do you begin when everything feels important, and how do you stop thinking and start making without needing everything to make sense first?In this episode, I explore:• Why accuracy can become a limitation rather than a guide in drawing • How early experiences shape the way we approach our work, often without us realising • The pressure that can follow a big life change, and how it can quietly block creativity • Why you don’t need a whole new body of work to move forward • How overthinking and too much choice can stop you from beginning • Why the idea of a “why” can sometimes become unhelpful rather than supportiveEach dilemma is explored with both emotional insight and practical steps you can try in your own creative life.If you have a creative dilemma you’d like me to explore, please email me at:[email protected]