How do artists make money? It’s a market place like anything else. People will buy it if they like it and can afford it. It is easier for an artist to make something with vitality and feeling if it comes from within but sometimes they just have to GET IT RIGHT.

When I was chiefly selling at agriculture shows I noticed no one made goats. A goat lived within walking distance from my home where I could study it.  I made a portrait of it  and took it to the next show. A goat exhibitor saw it with excitement, but on turning it upside down she uttered in disgust “Very poor formation of the udder” and no one bought it.

On returning home, I took it to a goat breeder and asked her what was wrong (I was actually rather pleased with it) and she explained I had modelled a scrub goat which no one would take to a show. She suggested I used her champion Anglo Nubian as a sample. I modelled it in wax with especial attention to the udder, enlarging it until she said, “Everyone will say “Who has a goat with an udder like THAT!”  (I hadn’t).

Goats led to a serendipitous few years, and the goats with suitable udders were popular. Several became  trophies.