Ed Marion, an attorney and artist, has picked up on the idea of using Skype to paint pioneered by Toronto's Barbara Muir, the portrait artist turned Skype sketcher.

Marion told me recently: "I'm pretty dedicated to this idea of painting people's portraits from all over the world, using Skype. I recently set up a website for the project." It's www.theportraitpaintingproject.com

He noted: Since I came up with the idea, I researched the web and saw that Barbara Muir was already sketching with Skype and I've seen some of the interviews that you did with her. I kind of laughed to myself when you asked her during one of them if she knew of any other artists doing this and she pretty sagely predicted that others would follow. I have no illusions that there won't be boatloads of artists following me, but it's something that really fits in with my lifestyle.

"The beautiful thing for me about using Skype is that it opens my remote rural art studio to the world and I can replicate the one-on-one sessions of painting people's portraits, which is what motivated me to change careers from law to art in the first place. It also gives people a chance to meet with an artist, spend time getting their portrait painted, and have this unique experience from wherever they are in the world."