This time of year is always my busiest as the majority of my commissions are surprise gifts and they are often ordered as Christmas presents, so as the days count down towards the holidays I find myself working all hours.

November was an interesting month as I began a commission for a portrait model of a really charming house in the USA. The client no longer lives at the property but grew up there and wanted a reminder of the old family home. He supplied me with a few photos taken in the 1980s and very luckily a copy of the original plans. From these I was able to spot the differences between the architect’s intended vision of the house and how it stood in the ’80s. Nowadays it looks different again, as the present owners have extended and modified the house in many ways so I had to get the period detail just right.