I try to forget about the purchaser if a piece has been sold before I do the work. There is the temptation to try to do what I think the person may like and the fear they wont like it: thoughts that are not conducive to producing good, original work. Today’s piece is on a day I well know whose it is and so I made the envelope last night to try to cut out all thoughts and reminders, but just as I went off to the studio I remembered! As it turns out I am playing with a number of themes general and so was able to switch into that stream of work and concentrate – though I had to work on something else unrelated for a while to build up speed. When I had finished and happy I then thought the buyers will probably like that and I sort of went in to a mini panic and I thought of starting again to change a tiny little thing in some misplaced effort to please. Then I realised my “improvement” was actually something that made it less subtle – then I knew I was right not to change anything!