Although I’ve been a professional artist for most of my adult life, variously as a painter, cartoonist and graphic designer, I only took up sculpture 6 years ago during the covid lockdowns. As someone without a track record in that particular medium, open art competitions provided the ideal place to test the waters and see how my work was received.
The Broadway Arts Festival open competition was one of the first to accept my work and I’ve been lucky enough to be selected in each of the past three years.
Bretforton Theatrebarn is not only a beautiful venue to show your work in but also attracts a surprisingly large audience… far more than some London shows I’ve been part of! As the competition welcomes a variety of media and a diverse range of styles, I’d recommend it to any artist, professional or amateur, thinking of exhibiting for the first time.
The deadline for entries is 17th August 2026. For all the details and the online entry form click:
https://broadwayartsfestival.com/2026-art-competition/
Very few artists make a living solely through selling their work, particularly young artists starting out on their careers, most have a ‘side hustle’ which helps pay the bills. For some that might mean spending some of their time teaching art, for me it’s meant political cartooning.
I’ve drawn cartoons since I was a kid, but generally to amuse my friends, however as an impoverished young painter trying to get noticed in the 1980s, I happened to enter, and surprisingly win, a cartoon competition run by The Sunday Times. On the back of this the paper started giving me work, and I realised that this might be a way to finance my ‘serious’ art.
I’ve been very fortunate to have been in constant demand as a cartoonist since then, but this did mean that the ‘side hustle’ expanded to be a full time one. I spent 30 years as the chief editorial cartoonist for The Independent, and for many of those years produced drawings for them six days a week. However in recent years I’ve scaled back my satirical cartoon work so that I now split my week evenly between that and my painting and sculpture.
My regular income from cartooning allows me to be more experimental in my other work, obviating the need to be overly commercial. However, I also think that the strictures of drawing to a daily deadline have instilled a disciplined work ethic which I carry into my fine art practice.
Find out more about Dave and see his work at:
