Iz, thank you so much for taking the time to share your art journey and more about your work! We first discovered you as the "Eco-Conscious Artist" on Instagram and were so heartened that you're spreading the importance of creating art in harmony with health and the planet's health - and finding it resonates so strongly with your wonderful audience.
Where did you grow up and how this place influenced you and your art?
I’m born and raised in Devon on the south west coast of England close to the world renowned ‘hippy town’, Totnes. Living so close to such a liberated and forward thinking community definitely shaped my opinion that you can make something you love a career, as so many artists, potters and creative people were doing so there.
Devon in itself is a very laid back place and is very focused on work life balance, enjoying our beautiful scenery and mindfulness. Being so far away from any major cities I didn’t grow up with that ‘rat race’ kind of pressure or mentality. Throughout my childhood my parents always encouraged both mine and my brother’s creative outlets, buying us whichever musical instrument took our fancy that year. My creativity has always come out in so many outlets like music, dance, acting, baking, drawing. No matter what the task, especially in school, I always found that I would take it to a different creative level than my peers. This definitely isolated me quite a lot as a kid.
Being from the coast there is a lot of that influence in my early work, I painted a lot of seascapes to depict the life that raised me. However, this was a very popular style to lean into where I'm from and it's kind of all you would see in the galleries, shops and cafe so there came a point in my teens when I wanted to move away from that and do something that others around me weren't.
When did you first become interested in painting and did you have any early influences?
It wasn't until I reached secondary school (age 10 -16) that I started to specifically turn to painting. My mandatory 1 art class a week allowed me to explore so many different styles and mediums of art and learn about so many different influential artistic people. I longed for days where I didn't have to do math and science any more and I could just fill my days with the creative classes (this day luckily did come). But I started to become obsessed with portraits and hyper-realism. You should see my pinterest board from that time. It's all limbs and smushed faces. My first proper art influence and who will forever be a favourite artist of mine is J.M.W. Turner. His use of rich colours alongside a muted pallet always spoke to me. Having spent many days at the Tate Britain I have had the privilege to view his work in person many times and it always gives me goosebumps.
Where did the inspiration for "Eco-Conscious Artist" come from? Do you have any new series planned?
I had seen a video on instagram about how acrylic paint was plastic and I realized that as an acrylic artist I'd never really evaluated how my practice was impacting the environment. So I started doing my own research and my own experiments with how I could decrease the impact of my art on the planet, and I realized that there were so many things I could do. So one day I just decided I would make a video about it and call it a mini-series, because I did have a few other tips to share. Suddenly a whole load of people on the internet resonated with it, so it kind of just snowballed from there. Now we've created a community of artists who are now reconsidering some of their day-to-day art actions and making them more eco-conscious and sustainable.
I am slowly starting a new series called "30 ways to be an artist when you just don't feel like being an artist". Being a planet lover also means I am a human lover, and I understand how mentally draining it can be to be creative. You can sometimes get what I call ‘artist guilt’, where you feel like you should be creating but you're just so tired because your creative brain is working 24/7. This series is a way for people to have fun in a creative and unexpected way that will help them within their art practice but isn't directly linked to it. They can do these fun activities and still feel like they are contributing to their overall artistic skills.
What is the #1 Eco-tip you would recommend to artists looking to have a more environmentally friendly studio?
I would start with a canvas tip. There are plenty of brands out there that now do recycled canvases or off-cut canvases, but also finding some used ones in a thrift store or art that you've painted in the past that you aren't really that in love with anymore that you can just cover up, is probably the best way to go. All you need is a little bit of gesso and sandpaper. You sand down the painting so there are no brush strokes protruding too much from the canvas. You then wipe that down, then paint the canvas with gesso. Wait for the gesso to dry and sand it down again (this may take a couple of coats. You don't have to sand after every coat, just the last one). This then gives you a smooth blank canvas again. If your canvas is feeling a little slack, all you need to do is use a spray bottle of water, turn over the canvas and spray the raw canvas at the back. This will immediately tighten the canvas. You can also use canvas keys to keep the painting taut.
How has painting with "Natural Acrylik Paints" (or other natural art supplies) changed your art practice?
I genuinely don't think I'll ever be able to go back to painting without Natural Acryliks. The quality of them is so much better than the acrylics I usually use. I love the fact that I don't have to worry when pouring my waste water down the drain and I can wash my brushes properly in the sink, it makes my art practice a lot more of a tidier process. I also find that I am more savoring with them because of how good quality they are. I don't need as much, and I want them to last me as long as possible because I just love using them. It's definitely changed how much paint I put on my palette, I make sure I am always saving my paint and not letting it just dry on the palette. I find they also don't dry so quickly on the pallet or canvas which is amazing for when I’m blending skin tones. They have progressed my art practice into an even more mindful one.
What does a typical “day in the life” look like in your studio?
My studio is actually my living room, so there isn't much of an off switch when it comes to my day at the studio. It's great because I don't have to commute, which saves energy and time, but also it then means that I am staring at an unfinished piece of work whilst eating at my dinner table, which can sometimes be a bit of a relaxation killer. Usually I will work on a painting from around 9 a.m. to around 6 p.m. when I'm in full flow. I do take regular breaks. As somebody who wears glasses, it's really important for me to give my eyes a little bit of a break from the intense concentration that I need to have.
My paintings take a ridiculously long time, so a day in my studio could genuinely look like me getting two, three sections of a painting finished, or it could be me going over and over the same half of a section for the entire eight hours that I'm painting. One thing that is guaranteed is that I'm always pumping music. I find that it gives me a great creative flow. One day I would love to have my own studio, which could be an open studio like once a week so people can come in and feel the energy and the joy that I have when I paint.
How do you approach a new project or piece? Can you walk us through your creative process?
Usually I have an idea of what I want to paint, and then Pinterest is very heavily involved. I will usually Photoshop a couple of images that I find and print that out onto a piece of paper. I then grid out that piece of paper and move that grid over to the canvas. If the canvas is already primed, I don't worry about it, but sometimes I prime my canvases with gesso and add in the canvas keys at the back to keep it taut throughout the whole process. Since I do work on my paintings for a very long time, they can become slack over time without them. I sketch out my drawing using the grid method. I then go ahead and underpaint the canvas to get rid of the scary white. My underpaint is usually an orange or brown colour, depending on the subject that I'm painting and their skin tone. After the underpaint is dry, I then go section by section. I've had quite a lot of people think that this is a bit of an unconventional way to paint, especially when it comes to people, because they ask how I get the skin tone the same the whole way through the piece; If I'm doing, say, the forehead one week and then the chin in another week. My answer to that is I don't really know, but also there's so many different shades, tones, highlights and shadows in every single area of the face. You're never using one single colour anyway. I like to do it this way because I'm then able to look forward to the next step, and it gives me a bit more of a strategy and a clearer process.
What has been your biggest challenge as an artist, and how have you overcome it?
I think my biggest challenge as an artist would just be how much I love to travel. I'm unable to bring a lot of my painting and art supplies around the world with me. I have now been traveling for almost ten years, so art has always taken a little bit of a back seat. Within this time, I have questioned my artistic ability quite a lot because I have been diving into more abstract work, as that takes me a little less time and is a bit easier to do on the road. None of that work was really speaking to me too much or showing my full artistic ability, so I questioned for a really long time if I could still paint like I used to when I was at school. It wasn't until November 2025 that I went back to painting portraits, which I hadn't done in about ten years. I was in Sydney for a few months and thought it couldn't hurt to grab some paint and a canvas. Doing this really made me reconnect with the art that I love to make.
What advice do you have for artists who want to start their art careers but are unsure where to begin?
Don't niche down too quickly. Try everything, experiment, have no expectations of yourself. Just throw yourself into anything creative and just because you've made a good piece of art in one style doesn't mean that you won't excel in another. Once you have a few things that you think you could sell or make prints of, I would definitely start with social media. It's free advertising. You're going to get a lot more traffic there than you would on a website, and you can start building a community where people get to know you. People are a lot more likely to buy something off of somebody they like and know rather than just a piece that they like. Not knowing where to start when it comes to making your own prints or selling your art is such a common problem that I actually made a course about it. When I was starting out, I didn't have any idea; there was no clear information or a step-by-step process of what to do when you want to take your art from hobby to career. I made all the mistakes. I wasted all the money. Which I don't want for other people. The course eliminates any wasted money and gets you selling your art and becoming a full-time artist as soon as possible.
Where can our audience see more of your work and support your causes?
My main social medias are Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, @izvaughanart on all. I'm currently only doing shorts on YouTube, but I hope one day to start doing a bit of longer-form videos. In my bios are links to my website www.izvaughanart.com, where you can purchase any of my originals, prints, merch and my ‘Become an Earning Eco Conscious Artist’ course and soon my ‘Eco Conscious Artist’ eBook. I also have a podcast called Artist Supporting Artists where I speak to all kinds of people about their creative journey. They don't have to be artists; they can be chefs, potters, musicians, data analysts, whatever, if you feel like you are a creative person, I want to talk to you. I also take commissions through my DM’s or email iz@izvaughanart.com.
