Reviewing the artists featured in this issue I’m reminded of one of the key mantras of our art-school painting tutors, that to develop and progress we must be willing to challenge ourselves, take risks and accept the possibility of failure along the way. Of course, every artist in this issue will have had periods when they have felt satisfied with their work, earned recognition for their skills and achievements, and sold their paintings, including Olwyn Bowey who, quite incredibly, and in spite of her obvious successes, still doesn’t believe that she has any natural talent. However, I bet that these successes, and any true personal satisfaction in their work, will not have been achieved before these artists were prepared to take the risks necessary to develop their own personal styles by pushing their subject matter, approaches and the possibilities of their chosen media. Take the example of Judi Whitton, who reveals a huge difference in her treatment of the same subject matter by comparing a painting of 1995 with a more recent watercolour. She explains her dissatisfaction with her original approach, and progression in the later painting to a much more personal style in her attempt to move in a new direction. Like Scottish artist Wendy Sutherland, who talks about being brave and challenging ourselves to avoid the danger of becoming too formulaic in our work, Judi emphasizes the need to experiment with different ways of interpreting our subject matter, in order to prevent the risk of becoming ‘stale’. Ian Sidaway takes this right back to one of the first decisions we need to make when starting a new drawing, or painting, and talks about the challenges inherent in choosing a square format for a composition, instead of the traditional rectangle. The initial format for a composition is a simple consideration, of course, but one that is often overlooked, and this basic first decision to try a square format could be just the thing to kick start us out of our comfort zones and into a completely new direction in our work. Perhaps the ultimate challenge for many artists would be to follow the example of Iain Gardiner who, at a key point in his artistic career, decided to hone his compositional and technical skills by taking on the challenge of working in miniature which, as he acknowledges, has been beneficial to all his artistic endeavours, with amazing results.