This week we hear from the British seascape artist Victoria Obolensky whose work has been sold worldwide to high profile collectors, including Prince Albert II of Monaco, Ralph Lauren and Joely Richardson. Victoria was born in 1972 in Hammersmith, London, the only child of Linda White, an artist and journalist. Her father Gavin Cowper left the family when Victoria was just six months old and she was raised by her mother and stepfather Alex White who owned Gresham Publishing. The family moved to Malta in the Mediterranean when Victoria was two years old returning to London when she was seven. She attended the Sacred Heart School in Malta followed by the Glendower Girls Primary School in South Kensington. When the family moved to Hampshire, Victoria attended the Rookwood School in Andover. An interest in photography attracted her to the Chelsea School of Art and later the Camberwell School of Art in London and she soon made her mark as a talented photographer exhibiting in the Andipa Gallery in London. Her first career was in journalism following in her mother's footsteps by working for glossy magazines such as Homes & Gardens, Elle, Vanity Fair and Tatler. In 2019, her focus moved to painting and during the Covid lockdown period she established herself as an artist. In the past two years Victoria has sold 480 paintings through her website, social media and galleries.  Victoria lives in Dartmouth, Devon with her son Max and Persian cat Toby.
 
https://victoriaobolensky.com/
Instagram: @victoriaobolensky.art 
https://www.instagram.com/victoriaobolensky.art 
 
Victoria’s favorite female artists:
Katherine Burns
Judy Chicago
Irina Cumberland 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week's guest is the American wildlife biologist, conservationist and filmmaker, Jocelyn Stokes. Jocelyn has filmed programming for PBS NATURE, Mongabay, National Geographic, the BBC, Waterbear, ILCP, Health in Harmony, the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Future Alam Borneo and Borneo Futures, among others. She is most at home filming endangered species in some of the world's most remote wilderness locations. Her technical skills in long lens shooting, gimbal work and drone operation to capture unique natural history sequences have led to award-winning conservation films. Jocelyn was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, the eldest of three; she has two brothers. Her father Robert Stokes is in media marketing and her mother Debra a medical assistant and artist. Growing up in the desert, Jocelyn spent her childhood outdoors exploring nature and wildlife. And she was fascinated by still photography from an early age immersing herself in storytelling with her camera. By the time she had graduated high school Jocelyn knew the career she wanted and achieved her BA in Photography from Lewis & Clark followed by graduate studies at Oregon State University for Wildlife Sciences. Jocelyn traveled to South East Asia after college and began to lay the foundation for her career of combining her passions of wildlife conservation and filmmaking from producing a documentary to conserve sun bears in Borneo to environmental journalism pieces for the conservation news web portal Mongabay.  She is currently filming and producing a PBS NATURE series In Her Nature focused on female wildlife conservationists around the world, beginning with Nepal, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Madagascar, which will air in March 2025. Jocelyn is married to wildlife photographer, Peter Mangolds, and the couple live in Jackson Hole, WY. 

Jocelyn’s website: https://www.jocelynstokes.com/
Her Wild Life https://www.herwildlife.com/
Instagram: @wiledandstoked 
https://www.instagram.com/wildandstoked/

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week’s guest is the American multi-media artist Sydney Swisher whose work on fabric creates a unique dimension to weaving photography and digital art with textiles. Her tapestries explore memory, materiality, and machine intelligence as she references family photos to generate locations based on descriptions of childhood memories.  Sydney was born in Olney, Illinois in 1994 the oldest of three children; she has a sister Maci and brother Sutton. She comes from a family of educators; her mother Melissa was a kindergarten teacher and father Martin, a high school science teacher.  But it was a BA Mass Communications studying TV and Radio with a Minor in Art that Sydney chose at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville from where she graduated in 2016. Her internships included graphic design while photographing weddings would help her develop her skills as a photographer. Sydney returned to Illinois to focus on her art career and her first solo exhibition, Fabricate, was shown in Peoria, Illinois in March 2024. She is currently preparing for a new show in Chicago this month. Sydney and her husband Nash live in Newton, Illinois with their two whippets.

Sydney’s website: https://www.sydneyswisher.com/
Instagram: @sydswisher https://www.instagram.com/sydswisher/
 
Sydney’s favorite women artists:
Jenna Gribbon
Megan Lewis
Holly Andres
Sasha Gordon
Njideka Akunyili Crosby 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week's guest is the South African wildlife acrylic artist Ilse de Villiers. Ilse works in detailed realism of her subjects, which portray the dramatic wildlife of Africa in its natural habitat drawing mainly from photographic reference. Ilse says although she was  always considered relatively talented she was not encouraged to pursue art so making it her career was never in her wildest dreams. Ilse was born in Durban in 1965, one of two daughter to father Frik Kleynhans (d) an education inspector, and mother Julie Kleynhans, a secretary, talented batik artist, horticulturist and watercolorist. An outdoor child, Ilse was always an animal lover with a wandering mind. She describes herself as a neat and organized person who preferred pencils to paint as a child. Ilse graduated with a B.A degree and Diploma in Higher Education at Bloemfontein University before teaching at a High School.  In 1987 she married her college boyfriend Abraham de Villiers and the couple eventually moved to his family’s farm in Middelburg, Bethal where they raised a family while Ilse became a farm girl, cooking, sewing, baking and gardening. The tragic loss of their eldest son Abraham Jnr. in 1996 in a farm accident would prove a pivotal point in Ilse’ life when some months later a friend encouraged her to start painting which turned out to be the therapy she needed. She says she found a creative expression and that became the beginning of her life story as an artist.  Ilse and her husband live in Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Her husband’s photographs are often used by Ilse as reference.  They have a son Herman and daughter Julése.  Ilse annually shows her artwork at two shows and in galleries across the US.

Ilse’ website https://ilsewildlife.com/
Ilse on Instagram: @ilse_wildlife 
https://www.instagram.com/ilse_wildlife/
 
Women who inspire Ilse:
Danielle Fisher
Carla Grace
Thalia Stanton
Annie Drew
Dina Brodsky
Louise Hancock
Samantha Greenhill
Sandra Bartels 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week the South African camera operator and steadicam operator, Ashlea Downes. Among Ashlea’s credits are the popular Netflix series Bridgerton on which she is working with a previous guest on this podcast, Alicia Robbins. Ashlea has also worked on House of the Dragon, Wicked, Skyfall, Spider-Man: Far From Home and His Dark Materials. Ashlea was born in Pretoria, South African in 1985. Her father, Ant, was an accountant and business owner, and her mother, Alex, an artist and art teacher. Her brother, Scott, is a hand painted sign artist. Ashlea grew up enjoying sports and the outdoors; she was a competitive rider, taking after her mother who was a keen horsewoman. She also swam, played water polo and netball but academia was not her rap. Instead she followed her father’s interest in photography and her mother’s talent for art. Her love of wildlife gave her aspirations to be a wildlife documentary filmmaker so it was no surprise that these influences steered her to the AFDA Film School where she graduated with a degree in Cinematography. After college, her relentless determination and ambition to break into the industry opened up opportunities that would prove the foundation of her career, and soon she would find herself being called up for the Bond movie Skyfall filming in Turkey and then to the UK to film at the London Olympics. A turning point in her career was moving to the UK shortly after where she met her partner and found steady work from trainee to 2nd AC/ loader and then making her mark as a camera operator. Ashlea lives between Reading, England and Cape Town, South Africa with her husband Karl Taggart. She is currently working as a camera operator on Season 4 of Bridgerton.
 
Ashlea on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4701569/
Instagram: @ashlea_downes 
https://www.instagram.com/ashlea_downes
 
Ashlea’s favorite women in visual arts:
Charlotte Bruus Christensen
Mandy Walker
Reed Morano
Rachel Morrison
Catherine Goldschmidt
Alicia Robbins
Alice Brook
Elana Garret 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week the Filipina artist Goldie Poblador who works in scent and glass interactive instillation art.  Goldie specializes in glass flameworking combined with performance, video, installation, and scent embodying themes of feminism, the environment, and decolonization as it relates to the body.  Goldie was born in Manila, The Philippines in 1987. Her parents; Napoleon Poblador, a lawyer and painter and Gizela Poblador, a home-maker who had earlier studied dentistry. Goldie is the eldest of four children; she has three younger brothers. She was, she says, an imaginative child who enjoyed creating worlds and performing. Her parents exposed her to art and music; she visited art shows, galleries and museums, learned the piano, and performed in a drama club. By the age of 18 Goldie was performing in a Punk band; something she likes to recreate today for fun. But it was her fascination with glass and painting that would steer her through college. She graduated from the University of The Philippines in 2009 with a BFA in Studio Art and later with an MFA Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design. Between colleges Goldie was introduced to the Scuola Abate Zanetti in Murano, Italy. She also worked as an artist and attended the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, co-founded by the renown glass sculptor Dale Chihuly.  Goldie has been exhibited internationally at such institutions as the Yangon Secretariat Building Knockdown Center, Cemeti Art House, Singapore Art Museum, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Fine Art Museum of Hanoi and The Cultural Center of the Philippines. She is currently working on a show for the Art Fair in The Philippines in 2025. Goldie will be a featured artist in the Sensorium, Stories of Glass and Fragrance; an exhibition that will explore the millennia-long relationships between glass, perfumery, and the storage of scent, at the Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) from September 7, 2024 - February 1, 2025.  Goldie is married to Joseph Sousa and the couple live in New York City.
 
https://goldiepoblador.com/Information
Instagram: @_goldieland 
https://www.instagram.com/_goldieland
 
Goldie’s favorite female artists:
Janine Antoni
Agnes Arellano
Joan Jonas
Camille Claudel
Kiki Smith

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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The South African acrylic painter Carla Bosch is known for her vibrant colors and bold strokes that trademark an unapologetic style. Her landscape paintings represent a wide range of nature’s palette uniquely capturing its light. Carla was born in Pretoria in 1976 to Anton, a pharmacist and amateur artist, and Ronel Gericke a home-maker and keen musician. She has a sister Murentia.  Carla describes her childhood spent enjoying family hikes around South Africa as happy and loving. Her father encouraged an interest in art and she would follow his lead as she explored different mediums. Carla studied Interior Design at the University of Pretoria and although she says she has always had high energy and a limited attention span it would be art that would fully absorb her as as self taught artist. By the age of 25 she found herself a full-time artist, and with the help of her husband Elroy, Carla operates a successful business with clients around the world. The couple moved to the US in 2013 spending five years in California before relocating to Texas.  Carla is represented in galleries in France, the UK, South Africa, Maryland and Texas. Carla has two children: Sarah and Daniel, and lives with her husband Elroy and their Chocolate Labradoodle Jamie in Austin, Texas.
 
Carla’s website: https://www.carlabosch.com/
Carla on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlaboschart
@carlaboschart
 
Some of Carla’s favorite female artists: 
Isabel Le Roux
Irma Stern
Maggie Laubser 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week the British make-up artist Patsy O’Neill whose career was founded in the 90’s in MTV and has spanned the world of TV, music, commercials, film and editorial. Patsy was born in 1975 in the shadow of West Ham football ground in East London. Her parents Robert O’Neill, an electrical engineer and Julia Dooley, a nurse & practice manager were Irish immigrants. Patsy is the middle of three children—she has an older brother and younger sister— and was educated at the Ursuline Convent School for Girls in Forest Gate, London. Her love of the arts could be seen in her constant drawings as a child and interest in fashion so it was no surprise that she chose to study Design Fashion Styling For Make - up and Hair at the London College of Fashion from where she graduated in 1993. From there she chose to start working in the business to get hands on experience, which is where her early opportunities created a pathway for her career. She has, she says, done just about everything in the business and loves to share her knowledge by mentoring interns and graduates.  Her roster of celebrity clients are some of the most recognizable women on the red carpet and have led her to having her work showcased at the Oscars. Patsy lives in London with her partner Richard Jakes and son Arlo.

Patsy’s website: https://www.patriciaoneill.co.uk/
Instagram: @patsyoneillmakeup
https://www.instagram.com/patsyoneillmakeup
 
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week the multi-media artist Carla Ciuffo whose innovative image making process and utilization of experimental printing and installation techniques, create a layered and immersive, often mystical environment. She says her approach treads the boundary between documentary and experimental arts. Carla was born on Long Island, New York to father Armand, a dentist and artist, and Loretta, a home-maker and amateur photographer.  She has two sisters who are also artistic: Adrienne is a documentary filmmaker and Roberta works in the Nashville Arts and Arts Education.  Carla attended some college but dropped out but then later proudly obtaining her Harvard ID when she did a study residency with the Disease and Biophysics Group. Prior to becoming a full-time artist, Carla worked a variety of jobs during her 20 years in New York City from candy stores to book printing. In her 40’s she left New York for Arizona where she trained as a massage therapist and became an entrepreneur starting small businesses. From Arizona, Carla moved to Tennessee in 2010 to become a professional artist and now an aspiring author of queer fiction. Carla and her wife Angela live in Nashville, TN.
 
Carla’s website: https://www.carlaciuffo.art/
Instagram: @Carla Ciuffo 
https://www.instagram.com/carlaciuffoworks/
 
Carla’s favorite female artists:
Jennifer O’Connell-Knoerzer
Courtney Minor
Suzanne Theodora White
Louise Dumont
Lea Craigie
Anna Karvounari
Olga Fedorova
Connie Hansen
Ursula von Rydingsvard  
Ana Francisca 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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The American photographer Jamie Beck is known for focusing on portraying life and her natural surroundings in the Provence. Jamie is the author of two books: ‘An American in Provence: Art, Life and Photography’ published in 2022 which became a New York Times Bestseller, and The Flowers of Provence published in 2024. In the last few years Jamie has created an online marketplace for her custom designs and also founded The Starling Club, an online social club for creative women.  Jamie was born in Arlington, TX, one of two children to James Beck, a law enforcement officer and Gina Pine, an accountant. She has an older brother and a step-father. Her early interest in photography began as a child wanting to memorialize images, which led to taking photos once her mother gave her her first camera. Jamie’s love of fashion led her to starting her career in fashion photography once she graduated from the New York Fashion Institute of Technology with a degree in Fashion Photography. She then worked in New York as a fashion and commercial photographer for 13 years before moving to the South of France. Jamie’s raison d’être is to capture the beauty of nature most notably through her love of flowers and the lifestyles of the Provence. Jamie lives in Apt with her husband Kevin and daughter Eloise.
 
Jamie's website:
https://jamiebeck.co/
Jamie on Instagram: @jamiebeck.co
https://www.instagram.com/jamiebeck.co/
The Starling Club https://club.jamiebeck.co/
 
Jamie’s favorite female artists:
Maria Rose
Natasshia Neary
Ronni Nicole
Katie Whipple 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week the British wildlife artist Lucy Joyce. Lucy’s painstaking attention to detail is her signature on portraits of a variety of animals. Her artistry is crafted from photographic images, and in some cases her own compositions, as she meticulously accounts for every hair and whisker. Lucy was born in Northampton in 1979, the oldest of two children—she has a younger brother Robert. Her mother Jackie Smith, is a part-time seamstress, and her father Brian was a precision engineer in motorsport. Lucy completed her GCSE and A Levels at Chenderit School in Oxfordshire including two GCSEs in Art and A Level Art, before working in print and design. She then attended Southampton Solent University where she earned a degree in Marketing Design. Lucy met her husband at uni and upon graduation the couple spent a year working in Canada before returning to the UK. After the birth of her two sons, Lucy returned to her art and built a clientele for pet portraits. In 2016, she became a full-time artist and now has commissions for her wildlife and pet portraits that extend far into next year. Lucy lives near Newbury in Berkshire with her husband Simon, two sons; Jack and Charlie and two Cocker Spaniels.
 
www.mrsjoycedraws.co.uk
Instagram: @mrsjoycedraws
TikTok: @mrsjoycedraws
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mrsjoycedraws
 
Some favorite female artists:
Carla Grace
Dina Brodsky 
Zoe Fitchet
Demi Lang
Georgia Hart
Jennifer Gennari 

Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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