GIVING up a career in property to become a full-time artist is usually the stuff of idle daydreams, but for Clive Brocklehurst, from Uplowman, it became a reality.

In his sage-green studio at the bottom of his garden, he flicks through some photographs of a spaniel he has been commissioned to paint that afternoon and occasionally shakes his head as we talk, as if he, too, can't quite believe he is here, living his dream.

And yet it all began by following not a dream, but a horse. "I spent 20 years as a commercial estate agent, dealing with anything from big fancy office blocks to corner shops in Buckinghamshire and then we moved to the West Country. A horse my daughter Ellie had went lame and the vet said he would have to be put down. But he would only go lame when he was being ridden — he was fine apart from that — so we contacted a woman called Lucinda McAlpine, who lived near us in Henley but had moved to Culmstock and was an expert in equine care. We took him and he got better," Clive says.

"We kept visiting the area and when my daughter finished her GCSEs she said, "Couldn't we move there?' so I got a job in Tiverton doing property work. All my relations came from Cullompton, so I knew that area although I had never been to Tiverton before I came for the interview."

The property market being what it was at the time, five weeks later the Brocklehursts found themselves living in Devon. "Three years later, Ellie left home and work had got a bit to the point where I did not want to carry on with it and my wife, Caroline, said, 'Why don't you just stop and do what you want to do', which is this," he says, gesturing to his studio.

"So after about six months I stopped waking up in a cold sweat and resigned. I set up and started painting and it has gone fine," he says with a smile, as if he still can't quite believe it.

However a career in property has made him acutely aware of the importance of knowing the market.

"I know I can't be 'but I am an artist'," he says, in a flowery voice making an expansive gesture.

"You have to really understand what you can sell.

"I am happy to do the illustrational side of it because it allows me to do my own paintings. And I find that something inspiring to me resonates with someone else.

"But if I try and paint something I think people will want, the pictures don't have the same integrity to them."

Keen to share his knowledge, Clive has set up a beginners' watercolour class at The Cadeleigh Arms, which has had such a response that he will be running another course which starts later this month "I had no formal training at school or at art college — I went to a school where art wasn't considered an option," he says. "You were supposed to be a solicitor or an accountant, but I have always painted and done courses with well-known watercolour artists, such as Gordon King, Dennis Syrett and Peter Folkes."

He says he has created the beginners' class because he believes a lot of people are very nervous about simply knowing where to start with watercolours.

"I am going to teach people how to use a brush, then build up to a picture step by step. I have made packs, with pre-sketched prints they can paint and there is also a frame in there so they have something to take away with them from the first lesson. It also removes the need for saying 'I can't draw', because you can practise that. But to get to know a medium, you need to get on with it rather than spending an hour and a half sketching."

Around the walls of his studio are various prints of his pictures — many of them featuring animals, including his own three labradors and a white hare.

"In legend, if someone breaks a woman's heart then her spirit can't rest and appears to him as a white hare. It follows him round — and only he can see it – until he meets his end.

"My tagline is love, land and legend. I gain inspiration from the countryside here and it appears from my work that a lot of animals inspire me too," he laughs. "And legend and music and passion for life and romance. A lot of things inspire me, really."

The Cadeleigh Arms, where he holds his classes, holds a special place in Clive's heart as it is where he put on his first show. "I was beside myself with nerves," he smiles. "It's like you are putting your heart out there on the wall. But it has got easier.

"I have started doing prints of my originals, in differing sizes, because it is all very well the originals selling for a couple of hundred pounds, but a lot of people want to own something and can't afford that."

One thing Clive hasn't quite got to grips with is actually talking about his work.

"I think years of taking people round empty office buildings and making conversation has been helpful," he says with a smile.

For more information on Clive Brocklehurst and his watercolour classes, see www.clivebrocklehurst.com or telephone 07752 180785.