Jul 13, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 12 segments
Are YOU curious about self publishing? Wondering how much you can make from it and how it differs from traditional publishing? In this episode, prolific self-published author Matt Rogers shares his…
Matt RogersGuestValerie KhooHostDean KooryNat NewmanPanelistNow, here's something that you may or may not know about me, especially if you are new to the show.
Yes, real oil paintings on real canvases, mostly of flowers and some other still life, but mostly of flowers.
So it started as a bit of an experiment, and over the past few years, it has turned into a serious practice, and people, you know, commission me, um, which still astonishes me, but, you know, I think that's wonderful.
I don't talk about it that much here, but I'm bringing it up today because the way I begin a painting has taught me something about writing that I want to share with you, so stay with me.
So when I start a new painting, the very first thing I do in m- most cases is cover the entire canvas in a single flat block of color, and for me, it's almost always raw sienna.
Occasionally it's black, but usually it's raw sienna, which is kind of like a rich, uh, rusty, earthy brown.
So at that point, the thing sitting on my easel is just a rectangle or a square of rust, right? That's it.
If you walked into my studio and saw it, you would have no idea [laughs] that this is going to become a huge painting of flowers, you know, the kind that someone might one day hang on their wall and pay good money for or buy for a present, that kind of thing.
[laughs] Then, over the top of that rusty, big, giant block, rectangle or square, I sketch the flowers very, very roughly.
I paint flowers, as I said, mostly, and at this stage they are barely flowers at all.
They're kind of just loose, scribbly shapes telling me where things will eventually go, and that right there is my equivalent of a first draft, but on the canvas.
And yet I cannot get to the finished painting, the one with light in the petals, with color, with form and structure and fluidity, without going through the rust and the scribble first, right? That ugly under layer isn't like a mistake or a failure on the way to painting.
We sit down expecting that first draft to look like a finished book, and when it comes out kind of a bit lumpy and not quite right and a bit embarrassing even, we decide, "Oh, no, I can't write," yeah? But that lumpy, embarrassing thing is just your version of raw sienna.
It's, it's the, the layer you build everything else on top of, and it's supposed to look like that.
Now, here's something that you may or may not know about me, especially if you are new to the show.
Yes, real oil paintings on real canvases, mostly of flowers and some other still life, but mostly of flowers.
So it started as a bit of an experiment, and over the past few years, it has turned into a serious practice, and people, you know, commission me, um, which still astonishes me, but, you know, I think that's wonderful.
I don't talk about it that much here, but I'm bringing it up today because the way I begin a painting has taught me something about writing that I want to share with you, so stay with me.
So when I start a new painting, the very first thing I do in m- most cases is cover the entire canvas in a single flat block of color, and for me, it's almost always raw sienna.
Occasionally it's black, but usually it's raw sienna, which is kind of like a rich, uh, rusty, earthy brown.
So at that point, the thing sitting on my easel is just a rectangle or a square of rust, right? That's it.
If you walked into my studio and saw it, you would have no idea [laughs] that this is going to become a huge painting of flowers, you know, the kind that someone might one day hang on their wall and pay good money for or buy for a present, that kind of thing.
[laughs] Then, over the top of that rusty, big, giant block, rectangle or square, I sketch the flowers very, very roughly.
I paint flowers, as I said, mostly, and at this stage they are barely flowers at all.
They're kind of just loose, scribbly shapes telling me where things will eventually go, and that right there is my equivalent of a first draft, but on the canvas.
And yet I cannot get to the finished painting, the one with light in the petals, with color, with form and structure and fluidity, without going through the rust and the scribble first, right? That ugly under layer isn't like a mistake or a failure on the way to painting.
We sit down expecting that first draft to look like a finished book, and when it comes out kind of a bit lumpy and not quite right and a bit embarrassing even, we decide, "Oh, no, I can't write," yeah? But that lumpy, embarrassing thing is just your version of raw sienna.
It's, it's the, the layer you build everything else on top of, and it's supposed to look like that.
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