ARTISTS are generally thought of as either starving in a garret (La Boheme and all that) or jammy millionaires producing works valued at eye-watering sums (hello, Damien Hirst). But the reality of life in the visual arts is more prosaic and a great deal more worrying, as the publication of Glasgow University’s report into the pressures facing UK visual artists reveals.

The median annual income for self-employed visual artists currently stands at just £12,500, 40 per cent less in real terms than they were earning in 2010. More than half of visual artists take on additional jobs, 51 per cent of which are in non-creative fields.

But even with additional jobs, the median individual earnings for visual artists remains at an unsustainable £17,500. And if you wonder how artists manage to live on such low income, consider that women in the visual arts typically earn 40 per cent less than men.