This week was really good for me. One of my greatest pleasures is getting a positive reaction from a customer. My business colleague had ordered a painting of his wife’s grandmother’s cottage in Dornie and a pen and ink pointillism drawing of their cute little dog Theo.

I had not realised the significance of the little cottage and the painted blue bench outside, which overlooked the loch. Apparently, her gran had died, and she had spoken so fondly of times spent there, that her husband thought he would commission the painting.

After a bit of a struggle identifying a photo which I could use, we were off. I sent daily updates until it was complete. He also wanted the drawing of their cute little dog as a present from their son, but sent me a photo of an action shot, with little Theo running towards the camera.

It captured his little personality perfectly, but I was slightly hesitant, as I was unsure if I would be able to capture the action adequately. However, I decided to give it a go. Another challenge was drawing a white dog using only black dots!

Every day is a school day as I learn my craft. Again, it was targeting the shadows that would achieve the result, similar to painting snow in watercolour!

Imagine my delight, when on the evening of his wife’s birthday, my friend forwarded a video of his wife opening her present. She was genuinely moved to tears. That kind of reaction is what makes art so worthwhile.

I wonder what the next challenge and learning experience will be. As I am not working for someone else, I have the luxury of being able to choose when I work, what medium I use and what I work on. That is quite liberating.

In down time, I give some focus to working on editing by book. It would be nice to get that project to fruition, so if you know a good literary agent, send them my way.