That's exactly what Fay Howison did when she took up watercolour painting.

She said: "I did some classes with Pauline Collett, and because I didn't do watercolours when I was at art school I was really struggling.

"She suggested I would be happier painting smaller pieces and she was right, I found it much easier."

From then on Fay has painted miniature watercolours, taking inspiration from her village of Exton and other scenes around Rutland.

She said: "I painted a few for fun and then a friend said they would like to buy them and that was it. It took off from there."

Fay's paintings can be found all over the county and beyond, and last year she designed Christmas cards set in Exton and at Oakham buttercross that were on sale in shops and museums around the county.
She said: "Often, when I meet people for the first time they ask me if I'm the lady who does the Christmas cards."

Fay and her husband Dan moved to Exton from Oakham in 1971 and her studio is full of paintings of local scenes.

She said: "I have pieces that I have kept for myself, but my husband is worse than I am. He often sneaks pieces away to keep.

"I like painting scenes with lots of trees. My least favourite thing to paint is windows because trying to do the bars and keep the brush straight drives me mad. My window painting brush has only about three bristles."

She said of the Open Studios programme: "I enjoyed last year very much. We got a lot of people because we are well placed next to the pub and we had more visitors than we expected.

"Some people were very serious about it, and others just wandered in after going for a drink."

Fay and Anne's work will be on display at The Old School House, Exton, on June 28 and 29 and July 5 and 6.