After the warm afternoon light shifts, the study suddenly has a pulse. A scruffy terrier in a soft green flat cap, golf club held proudly in his jaws, brings a smile before you've even sat down. He softens a room full of leather and wood without lowering the tone. Hang him at eye level above a small console in the hallway, on a study wall beside a reading chair, or in a child's room above a low bookshelf. He sits happily with tartan cushions, tweed throws, oak furniture and brass lamps. Skip the busy gallery grid around him — he wants a little breathing room. As a stretched canvas, the soft watercolour washes read warm and paintery from across the room.