Fun at the bbc

Interviewed on BBC Radio on 2nd January about my art. Not a bad start to my second year as an artist! (Interview starts 2hrs in to show from the link above)

I've only been painting since December 2018 and have been steadily raising my profile through the use of social media. Interestingly,I don't have a huge following but clearly it's about quality and engagement more than it is about the total number of followers. Since July I've been regularly selling my paintings and just before Christmas got an email from the BBC expressing interest in my story.

Why? Well, being a successful artist after just a year is one thing but being profoundly colour blind is quite another (not simply red-green). The BBC clearly liked the somewhat unique angle and so I ended up on the Bill Buckley show on BBC Radio Berkshire.

I must confess to being very nervous before the live interview but Bill is a very good presenter and interviewer. The approach was rather clever, in my view, in that Bill would have informal chats with me before the programme and during the music and other breaks. These chats were actually the preparations for the questions and Bill would ask the same questions but in a slightly different way. I appreciated this because it meant that I was already primed for an answer to his questions and thus avoided any awkward silences or being stumped.

The experience was a lot of fun and lasted for almost an hour, much longer than I expected. I certainly found it challenging to talk about some of my paintings whilst knowing that the listeners couldn't see them! My increase in visits to the website following the interview clearly suggested that it had peaked people's interest.

So what next? I have no idea yet but if I keep raising my profile who knows where it could take me.