Stop waiting for permission to make your art — Colette Woods on creative courage, finding your artistic identity and slow living | The Daisy Chain

Most of us have had someone tell us - a parent, a teacher, someone who should have known better - that the thing we love most isn't a real thing. Not a real career. Not a direction worth following. That moment doesn't leave you quickly. The question it plants - am I allowed to trust this? - can follow you for a very long time. Colette Woods is a painter and ceramicist living and working in Bruton, Somerset, whose art has been described as whimsical, instinctive and luminous. She spent decades working her way back to what she always knew she wanted - through family discouragement, through the practical realities of building a life. Last year, she was so seriously ill she couldn't lift her head from the pillow. She's only recently started working again. And she has never been clearer about what matters. Daisy and Colette talk about what happens when you spend your twenties following other people's maps, and what it takes to eventually trust your own instincts over the noise. They explore the art of saying no without explanation, and why Colette's morning ritual - an Italian percolator on the stove, the sound of the bubbling, the smell, a mug she made for herself, toast with marmalade is as close to meditation as anything she knows. Colette also shares her recent rediscovery of John Singer Sargent, whose paintings of fabric she finds so extraordinary that she looks at the cloth long before she ever reaches the face. This one is for anyone who was told their passion wasn't practical, and has spent years quietly wondering if they were right. Colette has been there. And she has something to pass down. Every Thursday at 3pm. 🌼 In this episode we discuss: Being told your creative ambitions aren't a real career What it means to finally trust your gut over other people's advice The power of saying no without explanation Life after serious illness and what it strips away Protecting your creative process from commercial pressure Creating beauty and ritual in the everyday Finding your artistic identity later in life Why emotions in art aren't a weakness - they're the energy Social media noise and why it's a lie How to start making art again when you've been away from it Follow The Daisy Chain: Follow The Daisy Chain on Instagram The Daisy Chain's TikTok Know an amazing guest? Contact us at thedaisychainpod@gmail.com Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a 5🌟 review — to help more people discover our pearls of wisdom. What found us - Links & Mentions Daisy: The Prado Museum, Madrid Colette: John Singer Sargent - artist  Hieronymus Bosch Three Colours Blue (dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski) Manon des Sources - French film  The Other Bennet Sister - TV series La Bohème, Puccini - opera Édith Piaf Grace Jones - La Vie en Rose  Guest: Colette Woods Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.