Back at school, I was fairly good at art and enjoyed it, but I had to give up classes at about 14 because I chose to do sciences for O and A levels and at that time we didn't get the option of doing both. So I did my exams and an engineering degree, then got what was, at the time, my dream job at Westland Helicopters and put my art aspirations on the back burner for 25 years. I did keep sketching on and off, but didn’t do any painting.

A few years ago, I decided I needed to rethink my work-life balance because life’s too short to not do things that make you happy, and signed up for a 1 to 1 painting day with Helen Elliott. As well as having a brilliant day in her studio learning a lot of really useful tips and techniques, the best advice she gave me was that you can’t do art wrong - if you don’t like how it turned out, you can always paint over it until you’re happy with it!

I thought when I started again that I was going to be a landscape artist, but it turns out that I have a bit of a green phobia - which I’m working on by doing a spot of painting plein air! Actually I love painting and drawing dogs - I think it’s making up for not actually being able to have one of my own at the moment (a real one that is!). There is something about dogs’ noses that I can’t resist, and I find it really satisfying to capture the likeness and character of a dog with as few marks as needed.

I paint mostly in acrylics because I like the brightness of the colours and how quickly they dry, so I can build up multiple layers to give me the detail I’m after, but I tend to go for a single colour for the background because it focusses all the attention on the subject, rather than distracting from it. My paintings go through a blurry stage (much like what I see when I take my glasses off) near the beginning when I apply large blocks of paint to get the basic features and lcolours in roughly the right place (this is not a good time to show a client a progress photo!), before refining the shape and details.

Recently I did a charcoal drawing course with Rachel Sargent and learning how versatile they are has opened a whole raft of new opportunities to experiment. I really enjoy how easily I can produce a quick sketch, and am improving my drawing skills by trying to “draw a dog a day” in my sketchbook, which may turn into paintings in the future.

I’m also learning to use oils but, as you can see from the photo, I need to work at getting them on the canvas rather than my hands!