About Creative Identity Transformation with Cindy Wider
For 35 years, I've been encouraging and guiding women in retirement as they discover the joy of drawing and colouring, often for the very first time since childhood. I'm Cindy Wider, a multi-award-winning Australian artist, author and fine art storybook illustrator, and I believe every woman has a creative life waiting for her.
Close your eyes and imagine a world you've invented with your very own hands, stroke by stroke. Little clothed characters from the Golden Age of Illustration, and childhood dreams coming to life on the page.
Pour yourself a tropical tea and listen along as I welcome you into my studio under the palm fronds of Far North Queensland. On my table, Kelly Cuddlee Koala and her family have just arrived in tropical paradise, and my second picture book is coming to life in watercolour, ink and coloured pencil.
Are you asking, "Who am I now?" Episode by episode, I'll share the stories behind my artworks and show you that drawing and colouring aren't just for the gifted few. They're for you too, and it's never too late to begin.
Would you like to see the artworks I talk about? Watch along on YouTube at @CindyWiderArtist.
Your next, and most beautiful, chapter starts right here.
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. Today I want to talk about a moment many women know well. You pick up a pencil, and what appears on the page doesn't quite match the picture in your mind. That gap has a name. I call it the mind to hand gap. In this episode I'll show you what it is, why it exists, and what closes it for good. It isn't about practising more, and it isn't about positive thinking. It's something far more fundamental that a...
17 Aug 2026
The Missing Step Before Every Drawing
Send us Fan Mail Drawing doesn't begin in the hand. It begins first in the mind, the heart and the emotions. Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. Over 35 years, I've watched so many women who could only draw stick figures go on to create a self portrait so real it takes their breath away, in just 12 weeks. In this episode, I'll show you how that begins, long before the pencil ever touches the paper. It begins with wonder, the curiosity that was set aside b...
27 Jul 2026
Learning to Draw in Retirement: From a Tiny Ember to a Creative Life
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. Today I'm sharing what it really takes to learn to draw in retirement, something most people never discover. In this episode I want to talk about the ember, about hope, and about how a tiny glimmer of wondering can grow into a full, glowing creative life. There are some very specific things that help a woman genuinely learn to draw, and most of them are rarely talked about. In this episode: 🌿 Why ...
20 Jul 2026
Finding Purpose in Retirement: The Retirement Gap, Where Creativity Awakens
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. In this episode, I'll share what I call the retirement gap, and why it might change the way you think about creativity for the rest of your life. Around two years into retirement, something quiet starts to happen. The holidays are over. The sleep ins have lost their novelty. The freedom you dreamed of is real and wonderful, and yet somehow not quite enough. In that open, quiet, finally yours place, a qu...
20 Jul 2026
Creative Retirement Series 3 of 4: What Does Drawing Give To You?
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. What if picking up a pencil could give you something you didn't know was missing? In this episode I want to take you somewhere very specific, to the moment the pencil touches the paper. Not the idea of drawing, but the experience of it. What it feels like, what it gives you, and what it quietly and profoundly changes. After 34 years of working with thousands of accomplished women, I can tell you that wh...
20 Jul 2026
Never Wonder What to Draw Again: The Washing Line Method
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. What does a washing line have to do with creativity? Everything! Imagine if every drawing you made was part of one beautiful, meaningful story. In this episode I want to share something that changes the way you think about drawing and creating art. It's what takes you from practising, following tutorials and copying photographs, to truly living a creative life. I call it the washing line. It has nothing...
20 Jul 2026
Creative Retirement Series 4 of 4: Can I Learn To Draw At 60?
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. Can you really learn to draw at 60, 65 or into your 70s? After 35 years of working with thousands of women, I can answer with absolute certainty. Yes. In this episode I'll share three real women whose stories may surprise you. A retired Director of Nursing who came to me certain she couldn't draw, and is now writing and illustrating her own children's picture books, currently on her second. A retired ve...
20 Jul 2026
Creative Retirement Series 1 of 4: Is It Too Late To Be Creative?
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. Is it too late to be creative? Have you been asking yourself that question lately? Maybe not out loud, but quietly, in the back of your mind, like a whisper of curiosity. After 34 years of working with thousands of accomplished women from nursing, teaching, healthcare and leadership, I want to tell you something that perhaps nobody else has told you. And if they have, perhaps it's time to believe it. It...
20 Jul 2026
Creative Retirement Series 2 of 4: I'm Not Creative — It's A Myth
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a cup of tea and come into my studio under the palm fronds. Have you been telling yourself your whole life that you're just not the creative type? You're not alone. It's the most common belief I hear from accomplished women after decades in nursing, teaching, healthcare and leadership. After 34 years of working with thousands of women, I can tell you this with absolute certainty. It's a myth. And in this episode, I'll show you why. Not with encouragement or opin...
20 Jul 2026
Welcome to Your Creative Identity Transformation
Send us Fan Mail Pour yourself a tropical tea and settle in. The cicadas are singing their ancient song, and you've just stepped into my studio under the palm fronds of Far North Queensland. For 35 years I've walked beside accomplished women from caring and analytical professions as they awaken their creative identity in retirement. And here on my table, little Kelly Cuddlee Koala is coming to life in my second picture book, in watercolour, ink and coloured pencil. This podcast is for you if ...
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