Sketches - Stories Of Art And People

Corinne is a bed-bound artist inspired by Frida Kahlo, who also painted from the confines of her bed. Despite the limitations of her circumstance, Corinne experiments with all kinds of artistic endeavour, from photographic self-portraits to embroidered bed-sheets. Then there's Maria Contreras, who experienced a traumatic childhood; she finds comfort through making textile dolls. And Brook Tate, who discovered joy through a giraffe puppet called Martha.

If you need support with mental health, help and support is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives. This week, stories of making art with what you have, where you are.

Corinne is a bed-bound artist inspired by Frida Kahlo, who also painted from the confines of her bed. Despite the limitations of her circumstance, Corinne experiments with all kinds of artistic endeavour, from photographic self-portraits to embroidered bed-sheets. Then there's Maria Contreras, who experienced a traumatic childhood; she finds comfort through making textile dolls. And Brook Tate, who discovered joy through a giraffe puppet called Martha.

If you need support with mental health, help and support is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

As a child in Baghdad Dhamyaa Abbass loved to sew and make dresses out of her mother's old clothes. But her parents wanted her to concentrate on her studies and she grew up to become a head teacher. Dress making had to be put aside. Years later she came to England as a refugee and began building a life in Oxford with her children. She got involved with the Multaka Project. Multaka - which means meeting point in Arabic - uses two University museums - The History of Science and Pitt Rivers - and their collections as a meeting point to bring communities together through the mutual sharing of art, stories, culture, and science. It pairs Arabic speakers with English speaking guides. The project also encouraged Dhamyaa to take up dress making again and she began designing and sewing dresses that reflect her culture and love of her home country. It's her way of coping with homesickness for the country she was forced to leave.

Darryl Carrington has performed in touring circuses, international arena shows and festivals around the world as a juggler, trapeze artist and cabaret act. But in recent years, he's found a renewed love for using clowning and his own experiences of neuro-diversity to connect with audiences through street performances.

This week Sketches speaks to three people whose art relates to their city.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Becky Ripley.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Writer Anna Freeman presents stories of coming together to make art. A patchwork blanket in Birmingham brings together the migration journeys of refugee women around the city. A collective of homeless singers and performers come together to turn the story of La Boh耀me on its head. And musician Spencer Flay talks about his need to separate himself from others in order to write his songs - by climbing up into the cabin of a crane. Spencer was discovered by the BBC after he uploaded his music to BBC Radio Bristol's Upload programme - a show where anyone can upload the music, poetry or fiction they are creating. Find out more at bbc.co.uk/upload

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Becky Ripley.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

There are violins made from driftwood by Steve Burnett, sculptures from jet engine parts by Phil Starr-Mees and Holly Casio's homemade zines about Bruce Springsteen.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about the meaning of art in people's lives. This week, stories of people ripping up rule-books and doing it for themselves.

There are violins made from driftwood by Steve Burnett, sculptures from jet engine parts by Phil Starr-Mees and Holly Casio's homemade zines about Bruce Springsteen.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Each week, writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives. In the first episode of a new series, Anna and the Sketches producers share stories about people stuck inside, all - in different ways - using art to get out.

Polly talks to Lee Cutter, who learnt to draw in jail after a guard left a red pencil in his cell. Anna hears the story of the agoraphobic traveller`, photographer Jacqui Kenny, who takes breathtaking shots of places she's never been, using Google Streetview. And Mair tells the story of Mary Lattimore, a harpist who became fascinated by Scott Kelly, a NASA astronaut living on the International Space Station for a year, after an accident led to her spending two months with her jaw wired shut.

Presented by Anna Freeman

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Polly Weston

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Each week, writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives. In the first episode of a new series, Anna and the Sketches producers share stories about people stuck inside, all - in different ways - using art to get out.

Polly talks to Lee Cutter, who learnt to draw in jail after a guard left a red pencil in his cell. Anna hears the story of the agoraphobic traveller`, photographer Jacqui Kenny, who takes breathtaking shots of places she's never been, using Google Streetview. And Mair tells the story of Mary Lattimore, a harpist who became fascinated by Scott Kelly, a NASA astronaut living on the International Space Station for a year, after an accident led to her spending two months with her jaw wired shut.

Presented by Anna Freeman

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Polly Weston

We hear stories of an incredible find inside a rental flat after the occupant's death; a teenage taxidermist treating roadkill with care and respect; an expectant mother painting a mural for her new child; and of a photographer documenting people's mantelpieces and the incredible stories behind the objects on display.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

The writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about lives changed by art. This week, stories of people using their homes as a canvas and of the meaning behind the art and objects we surround ourselves with in our domestic space.

We hear stories of an incredible find inside a rental flat after the occupant's death; a teenage taxidermist treating roadkill with care and respect; an expectant mother painting a mural for her new child; and of a photographer documenting people's mantelpieces and the incredible stories behind the objects on display.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

We hear stories of how a neighbour's dying wish changed one couple's life forever; Dawinder Bansal a Wolverhampton artist who recreated her late dad's VHS Bollywood rental shop and the family's living room; and of how one artist took on the task of drawing every item in his grandad's shed.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

The writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about lives changed by art. This week, stories of legacy, and of living on through art.

We hear stories of how a neighbour's dying wish changed one couple's life forever; Dawinder Bansal a Wolverhampton artist who recreated her late dad's VHS Bollywood rental shop and the family's living room; and of how one artist took on the task of drawing every item in his grandad's shed.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

This week, Anna brings stories of the Bristol Bike Bard, Caroline Burrows, who uses the freedom of the open road to inspire her poetry. Whilst Lois Pryce, who found herself housebound recovering from illness, transported herself to faraway lands through the power of imagination. And Clarke Reynolds, whose sight has been deteriorating ever since he was a child, but who harnesses this as inspiration to make curiously visionary art.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas, for BBC Audio in Bristol.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about of people who keep going, along the twisting and turning of long roads, and the art that comes from the journey.

This week, Anna brings stories of the Bristol Bike Bard, Caroline Burrows, who uses the freedom of the open road to inspire her poetry. Whilst Lois Pryce, who found herself housebound recovering from illness, transported herself to faraway lands through the power of imagination. And Clarke Reynolds, whose sight has been deteriorating ever since he was a child, but who harnesses this as inspiration to make curiously visionary art.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas, for BBC Audio in Bristol.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

We hear stories of a mixtape washed up on a beach, reunited with the woman who made it in the most unlikely way; of a mural at risk of being lost forever; and of a Liverpool FC fan's decorated coat, presumed gone after he left it as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

The writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about lives changed by art. This week, stories of art lost and found.

We hear stories of a mixtape washed up on a beach, reunited with the woman who made it in the most unlikely way; of a mural at risk of being lost forever; and of a Liverpool FC fan's decorated coat, presumed gone after he left it as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

There's Steve Waller, who always wondered exactly what his great uncle saw on his last walk out of Middlesbrough before he died in Battle of the Somme. Then Ros, inspired by a novel and needing to heal a heartbreak, who made her student bedroom in miniature. And Matt Doogue, who found solace lying in the grass with his macro camera, communing with the world of spiders and grasshoppers.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Middlesbrough in miniature. The microworlds of arthropods. A minute replica of a student bedroom. How can small creations help with the big things? This week, the writer Anna Freeman hears stories of people and their tiny worlds.

There's Steve Waller, who always wondered exactly what his great uncle saw on his last walk out of Middlesbrough before he died in Battle of the Somme. Then Ros, inspired by a novel and needing to heal a heartbreak, who made her student bedroom in miniature. And Matt Doogue, who found solace lying in the grass with his macro camera, communing with the world of spiders and grasshoppers.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Becky Ripley

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Writer Anna Freeman presents true stories about the art of remembering. Featuring Nudrat Afza, a self-taught photographer documenting the dwindling congregation of Bradford's last synagogue. And Arek Hersh, a Polish holocaust survivor, whose visit to a secondary school in the Lake District inspired an incredible art project involving six million buttons, one for each person in the Holocaust.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Becky Ripley

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

It seemed like it would go on forever, this vastness of terrain and weather - it was the only place i felt reflected. Tanoa Sasraku grew up in Plymouth and first came to Dartmoor as a teenager on an army cadet expedition. Something about the wild landscape with its bogs and mists helped her unpack her own experiences of growing up as gay and biracial in Devon. She shows Anna her Terratypes, sculptural works built up from many layers of paper, coloured with foraged pigments, stitched and torn, and submerged in the water of a Dartmoor bog.

I really found my Muscogee feet on the land here... there's something really holding about the valleys. Melinda Schwakhofer is an American textile artist and citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation who now lives and works on Dartmoor. She has reconnected with her Native American ancestors through learning about hide-tanning and working with buckskin, in a workshop at the edge of the moor.

It's like all the best bits of the rest of the British countryside but on steroids... It lights something in my soul... it changed my writing. Tom Cox is a writer who has made his home at the southern edge of the moor. He introduces Anna to some favourite spots along the River Dart and the densely wooded folds of the valleys he loves to walk in. This is a landscape that has continually sparked something for him, and that is woven into his fiction and essays. He had often wondered why the hills of Dartmoor kept calling him back and recently discovered a family link to the moor that made sense of everything.

Produced by Maggie Ayre and Mair Bosworth

Writer Anna Freeman meets three artists who've been inspired by the landscape of Dartmoor.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Becky Ripley

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

The writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about the meaning of art in people's lives. This week, how it feels to travel, how it feels to return home, and the art that comes out of the journeys we take. First up, a sweaty cycle-touring Shakespeare troop look back on their tour and then to look forward... into the unfamiliar face of normal life. Then Anna tells a story of how travel feeds her writing - and how writing feeds her travel. And finally we meet Gemma Paintin and James Stenhouse, who toured 28,000 km across Europe recording love songs in their van, which doubles as their home and mobile recording studio. What have they learned about Europe, and about love, from this listening odyssey?

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Becky Ripley

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Callen Martin was taken into care at the age of four and grew up with a foster family. Through his childhood and teenage years he escaped into books whenever things were tough, but rarely saw an accurate reflection of his own experiences. Today, he is working on his first novel for young adults - writing the characters and experiences he always wanted to see.

Growing up in the Midlands, as small girl Parv Kaur didn't go out and play with her brothers and sisters. Instead, she'd sit in the back room watching her father rehearse with his band and became fascinated and enthralled with the bhangra music they played. She loved music but couldn't see there was a place for her in the male-dominated world of bhangra. She grew up to become the UK's first female dhol drummer, and now leads an all-female bhangra group, playing weddings, TV shows and even Glastonbury.

Eleanor Kerr-Patton is an art jeweller who uses her jewellery to explore her relationship with her own mental health. She uses a process inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, a traditional method of repairing broken pottery with golden lacquer to show rather than hide the broken places.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

Reinvention, rebuild, remake and repair!

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

The writer Anna Freeman hears stories of people using art and creativity to reinvent, rebuild and to remake old traditions.

Callen Martin was taken into care at the age of four and grew up with a foster family. Through his childhood and teenage years he escaped into books whenever things were tough, but rarely saw an accurate reflection of his own experiences. Today, he is working on his first novel for young adults - writing the characters and experiences he always wanted to see.

Growing up in the Midlands, as small girl Parv Kaur didn't go out and play with her brothers and sisters. Instead, she'd sit in the back room watching her father rehearse with his band and became fascinated and enthralled with the bhangra music they played. She loved music but couldn't see there was a place for her in the male-dominated world of bhangra. She grew up to become the UK's first female dhol drummer, and now leads an all-female bhangra group, playing weddings, TV shows and even Glastonbury.

Eleanor Kerr-Patton is an art jeweller who uses her jewellery to explore her relationship with her own mental health. She uses a process inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, a traditional method of repairing broken pottery with golden lacquer to show rather than hide the broken places.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

Reinvention, rebuild, remake and repair!

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Ex soldier Matt Whitfield struggled with reentry into civilian life after twenty years in the army. Desperately in search of something to add meaning to his life he began drawing scenes of his hometown of Middlesbrough. Matt was struck by the decline of the town after the loss of the Teeside steel industry and began creating art depicting the end of a way of life. His exhibition Ghosts of the Tees is a melancholy reflection of the changes Matt observed after his time away.

We tend to associate stone carving with memorials and monuments, designed to stand the test of time. But on the rocky beach at Bucks Mills in North Devon, sculptor and stone carver Jo Sweeting is creating works of art that are designed to disappear. As part of a collaborative project with seven other women artists called Re-Wilding the Word Hoard she is gathering and celebrating local dialect words for landscape, and carving them into boulders which will one day be carried off by the tides.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Stories of the meaning of art in people's lives

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

In the spring of 1997, Ken and Tina met on Grafton Street in Dublin and bonded right away over a love of juggling. They went on to train in circus skills and set up a company together. Along the way they fell in love and spent years touring the world together as professional and romantic partners - becoming famed for the doubles trapeze act at the heart of their show. Until one day Tina met someone else. Their romantic relationship ended but they decided to continue performing together. We find out what it's like to rely on someone to catch you in midair when you're going through a painful breakup, and how the two performers have managed to forge a friendship and professional partnership that has stood the test of time.

And we meet Gabriel and Mary, a couple whose relationship began as teenagers living at opposite ends of the country, and whose early relationship was conducted through hundreds of letters. Gabriel had sent so many he ran out of envelopes and began to make his own. These hand-made envelopes are like miniature works of art - snapshots of moments. They're made from anything he could get his hands on - the manuscript of Gabriel's music project, cuttings from magazines, his college timetable.

Now married with four children, the envelopes are framed on the wall. But, Gabriel and Mary have never looked inside them again. Listen in, as they re-open the letters after more than 20 years.

Presented by Anna Freeman

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Polly Weston

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives. In this episode, two stories of art and love.

In the spring of 1997, Ken and Tina met on Grafton Street in Dublin and bonded right away over a love of juggling. They went on to train in circus skills and set up a company together. Along the way they fell in love and spent years touring the world together as professional and romantic partners - becoming famed for the doubles trapeze act at the heart of their show. Until one day Tina met someone else. Their romantic relationship ended but they decided to continue performing together. We find out what it's like to rely on someone to catch you in midair when you're going through a painful breakup, and how the two performers have managed to forge a friendship and professional partnership that has stood the test of time.

And we meet Gabriel and Mary, a couple whose relationship began as teenagers living at opposite ends of the country, and whose early relationship was conducted through hundreds of letters. Gabriel had sent so many he ran out of envelopes and began to make his own. These hand-made envelopes are like miniature works of art - snapshots of moments. They're made from anything he could get his hands on - the manuscript of Gabriel's music project, cuttings from magazines, his college timetable.

Now married with four children, the envelopes are framed on the wall. But, Gabriel and Mary have never looked inside them again. Listen in, as they re-open the letters after more than 20 years.

Presented by Anna Freeman

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Polly Weston

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

What is it like to turn up as a guest to your own wake? We hear stories of a concert organised in tribute to a London musician, reported missing in the chaos following the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004. Of Sean Corcoran, a sand artist on the Copper Coast of Ireland on the joy he gets from making his drawings and letting them go with the changing tides. How he came to form a friendship with another sand artist in Wales never meeting him but simultaneously creating art on either side of the Irish Sea. Two Shetland women remember a remarkable woman and artist who created work from the beach finds she collected near her home on the island of Yell. Their brief encounters with Jeanette Nowak and her work inspired each to write a song about her.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

The writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about lives changed by art. This week, stories of high tides and low tides; of things washed up and things washed away; and of people making art at the water's edge.

What is it like to turn up as a guest to your own wake? We hear stories of a concert organised in tribute to a London musician, reported missing in the chaos following the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004. Of Sean Corcoran, a sand artist on the Copper Coast of Ireland on the joy he gets from making his drawings and letting them go with the changing tides. How he came to form a friendship with another sand artist in Wales never meeting him but simultaneously creating art on either side of the Irish Sea. Two Shetland women remember a remarkable woman and artist who created work from the beach finds she collected near her home on the island of Yell. Their brief encounters with Jeanette Nowak and her work inspired each to write a song about her.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

There's the Leeds-based writer and musician using song to honour elderly members of the local community though a series of musical portraits. An art teacher drawing every member of the British armed forces to have lost their lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. And there's a mural that appears on a wall in Leith depicting a face familiar to many locals. But where has the subject of the painting gone?

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Capturing someone's essence, really seeing them, is a way of honouring them. The writer Anna Freeman hears stories of people using their creativity to pay tribute to others, through drawing, painting and song.

There's the Leeds-based writer and musician using song to honour elderly members of the local community though a series of musical portraits. An art teacher drawing every member of the British armed forces to have lost their lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. And there's a mural that appears on a wall in Leith depicting a face familiar to many locals. But where has the subject of the painting gone?

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Maggie Ayre

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

As part of the introduction, Anna quotes from her poem, Ambition, which was published by Burning Eye Books in 2013.

Presented by Anna Freeman

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Polly Weston

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives. In Turning Points, we hear from Stephen Lightbown, who was an active, football-playing teenager when a sledging accident at the age of 16 changed his life forever. From Amara, who fell in love with Van Gogh's painting The Starry Night having never seen a night sky full of stars. And from the residents of a Men's Sheds project in Wales using craft and woodwork to overcome loneliness and isolation.

As part of the introduction, Anna quotes from her poem, Ambition, which was published by Burning Eye Books in 2013.

Presented by Anna Freeman

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Polly Weston

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

This episode features Alice Planel-Frederiks, a Stroud-based artist and academic, whose project Victory March is a painful and funny graphic novel about taming grief, defeating depression and conquering motherhood. She has been working on the project since 2019, following the death of her 10-month old son Bas from meningitis. Across its pages of colourful panels in ink, pastel and watercolour she unpacks the experience of loss, and of the incredible love and support she and her husband received from friends, family and strangers.

And we meet lifelong artist and music-lover Gerry Mahood at his home studio in Bournemouth. Gerry always knew he was adopted, but he never knew the facts of his origins or birth parents. Painting and music were a solace and an escape, but there was a big piece of the puzzle missing. At the age of 60, he decided to try to trace his birth mother. A process which has unlocked something for him personally and in his creative work.

Produced by Mair Bosworth

Stories of why creativity matters and the backstories behind artists' work.

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Each week, writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about art and people around Britain. In this first episode, Anna and the Sketches producers find stories about escapes - ¦

Mair talks to Mark Knight about his quest to track down a painting which he fell in love with as a child. Becky meets Bradley Warwick to hear how he plays music through a computer system which he controls with his eyes. And Polly meets two people for whom writing is an escape; the fantasy fiction writer Icy Sedgwick, and Leesa Harker, whose filthy spoof of Fifty Shades of Grey granted her a whole new life.

Producers: Mair Bosworth, Becky Ripley and Polly Weston

Presenter: Anna Freeman

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.

Each week, writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about art and people around Britain. In this first episode, Anna and the Sketches producers find stories about escapes - ¦

Mair talks to Mark Knight about his quest to track down a painting which he fell in love with as a child. Becky meets Bradley Warwick to hear how he plays music through a computer system which he controls with his eyes. And Polly meets two people for whom writing is an escape; the fantasy fiction writer Icy Sedgwick, and Leesa Harker, whose filthy spoof of Fifty Shades of Grey granted her a whole new life.

Producers: Mair Bosworth, Becky Ripley and Polly Weston

Presenter: Anna Freeman

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Each week, writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about art and people around Britain. In this second episode, Anna and the Sketches producers tell stories about portraits.

Becky travels to West Wales to find out why artist Grahame Hurd-Wood is painting a portrait of every single inhabitant of the city of St Davids. Mair meets the seamstress Lydia Higginson who gave away all the clothes she owned and made a whole new wardrobe from scratch. And Polly unfolds the story behind a mysterious piece of street art in Birmingham.

Producers: Mair Bosworth, Becky Ripley and Polly Weston

Presenter: Anna Freeman

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.

Each week, writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about art and people around Britain. In this final episode, Anna and the Sketches producers share stories on landscapes.

Polly talks to photographer Kiara Mohamed about why she is driven to take drone images above her city of Liverpool. Becky goes on a windy walk with writer Vanessa Kisuule, who is starting to question why the words `black` and `urban` often get clumped together as if they are synonymous. And Mair visits Sonia Gill in the Isle of Skye to find out why the children at the local Gaelic-speaking primary school are now into Bollywood dancing.

Producers: Mair Bosworth, Becky Ripley and Polly Weston.

Presenter: Anna Freeman

Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories about the meaning of art in people's lives.