Creative Soundscapes with Margaret Soraya

Lisa Poulsen creates beautiful digital landscapes using photographs of Caithness Stones from her studio by the sea in Thurso, in the far North of Scotland.

Join Margaret as they chat about her beautiful, individual style of artistry. She describes her process of building upon her chosen landscape template and adding multiple layers in photoshop, producing delicate and wonderful results. Her talent and empathy shines through.

She believes the story, the why, behind her work is almost as import as the work itself.  It has developed over the years to be more about people and their connection with the place and the benefits that can be gained from this.

Articulating beautifully her experience of early motherhood, being replenished by the landscape and her artwork she outlines her progression to where she is today. Her recent work is much more about life experiences and how our natural environment can benefit our wellbeing. Lisa is excited with lots of ideas for her masterclass at Margaret's Festival in Aviemore in October. 

https://www.inspiredbycaithness.com/
https://www.instagram.com/inspiredbycaithness/

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

Listen to Margaret's inspirational and moving description of  her long journey home to Harris. Creating a home as a single parent for her 2 young boys was the start of her 20 year struggle to get to where she is today and she expresses her emotions beautifully. She persevered, working tirelessly to provide a stable family life whilst following her own belief in her ability to develop her business through creativity.

Sign up to her newsletter to hear about new retreats and future developments in the business.

https://quietlandscapes.co.uk/

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

Margaret catches up with Carien Borst, an artist who lives and works in the Netherlands.

She chats about how she struggled with creating a business while maintaining her art's authenticity.  A flow state (being in the moment and creating freely, forgetting everything around you) was hard to achieve during this period. Carien explains that art is like a muscle you can train. You can create conditions that may help pave the way for a flow state . For instance, you can take time, go to a studio, read a book, go outdoors, do research, find things that attract you, but equally, you cannot predict a flow state.

Join Margaret and Carien whilst they further explore what their individual art means to them and how they use it during the difficult periods we all experience from time to time.  It is interesting to hear them bounce ideas and you will leave feeling inspired to get creative.

Carien Borst
https://www.instagram.com/carien_borst/

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

Kaisa Siren is a photojournalist, gallery owner and nature photographer, known for her mastery of colour in her photographs, whilst capturing the wilderness of Lapland. She chats with Margaret about the concepts and ideas behind her  ICM photography.

In contrast to the documentary-type work of her day job, Kaisa finds her passion for colourful ICM fascinating and liberating - beautiful work which is almost fully abstract. Kaisa shares some childhood memories which have unconsciously shaped her photography. Whilst she is now at the stage of accepting, and liking, her own work she describes the time and effort this has taken.

Kaisa also reflects about the increasing interest in ICM.  Is it that people have wanted a change  / to push the boundaries from traditional photography that created an interest in other forms of photography? Cameras, techniques and on-line tutorials are also more accessible?  In terms of explaining ICM, Kaisa feels there is more expression, more depth, more mood and freedom which comes into making these images - it connects with your true emotions.

Don't miss this really interesting talk - Kaisa describes beautifully the influences that have affected her both personally and artistically and how she now considers them a positive.

https://www.instagram.com/kaisasirenphotography/

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

Margaret shares her own thoughts on gratitude in the episode after the monthly theme in Creative Haven was gratitude in December.

To find details of joining Creative Haven please go to
https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

To find details of the Creative light Festival go to
https://creative-light.co.uk

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

Maria Murray is a multi-talented and passionate artist who uses whatever media is appropriate to create the image she wants to produce. 

Based in the beautiful village of North Waltham, she is described as a nature-obsessed, flower-loving, story telling artist.  She explains her deep understanding of the why behind her work - a blend of a love of gardening coming from covid and a deep and long interest in relationships leading to the creation of her flower scanography .

As she chats with Margaret, we learn how a number of recent life changes led her to reassess her life.  It is refreshing to hear her views on simplifying her life, generating more room for creativity and spending more time with loved ones. The bottom line is that we can choose how to spend our time and she doesn't want to look back and have spend 80% of her life working. Home is with your people.

Change is something that Maria advocates.  She eloquently tells how she has needed time to absorb the feelings of loss experienced this last year. After consciously deciding to scale down work, hear her philosophy on how she has adapted and embraced this next stage of her life and simplified her life.  She is happy now to 'thrive rather than strive'.

https://www.instagram.com/mariamurraycreative/

https://bio.site/mariamurraycreative

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

Bill Ward is a photographer and actor living in Bristol, specialising in creative landscape photography. His photography is mainly project based and he has a strong leaning towards water and enjoys creativity using abstract, ICM and multiple exposure. 

Margaret welcomes back Bill to the first episode of her 2023 podcasts.  Always highly entertaining, he describes how he manages his busy life, whilst Margaret explains how, with her house up for sale and a move to Harris imminent, her life is opening up.

Keep listening to hear them explore their different culling and editing styles - it is fascinating to hear how different personalities work! What do you do with your photographs?  Bill explains that he 'carries his photographs with him'. He feels it's the quality of time that you have to spend, memories of a feeling at that time is what photography is about - photographs are a reminder of that feeling.

Reflecting on last year's Creative Light Festival, Bill loved that photography was at the centre, but with all sorts of other creative influences feeding in. He relished the energy and sense of community with like-minded souls, all coming from different directions. This year's Festival in Loch Insh, Aviemore is in October with tickets on sale now.

Don't miss this first podcast - a perfect start to the year!

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

Mali Davies is a talented photographer, YouTube filmmaker, podcaster and graphic designer.

Despite a love of photography from the age of 6, he explains how he felt pushed into the commercial world of graphic design as it's difficult to earn a living as an abstract artist. It took him many years to realise that photography was the one thing he really wanted to do. His photography picked up about 10 years ago when landscape photography began to surface and feels this grew from YouTube channel.

Mali's enthusiasm is highly infectious, and he loves finding something enthralling and inspiring in the work of others - there is no room for competitiveness. Margaret & Mali chat about the  rise in expressive photography and creativity at the moment and the  channels available for inspiration.


Mali's website

Mali's Instagram

Mali's YouTube Channel

Mali's Podcast

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com

𝐘𝐨𝐮 may also 𝐛𝐞 i𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 t𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 links:

My Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/

Online Creative Haven community

https://creative-haven.newzenler.com

Creative Festival

https://creative-light.co.uk/

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretSoraya

Retreats

https://www.quietlandscapes.co.uk

Weddings

http://sorayaphoto.com