I knew her as the president of AAC Saatchi & Saatchi, Bermuda's oldest and largest advertising agency. But there I was, standing in a friend's house on Christmas day admiring an impressionistic painting of a Bermuda cottage by the sea. The painter had captured the froth flickering on bright blue waves, and blended a riot of colour into the sea and the building in a slightly primitive style redolent of Van Gogh.

And then I saw the signature: “Rhona Emmerson”. “She should do the painting full time,” remarked my friend, “She's very talented.”

Meeting Rhona at AAC's Front Street office, I ask her whether she originally wanted to be a full time painter.

Apparently she displayed artistic talents early on at both Whitney and Mount St Agnes schools were she was a student.

Even though her parents were themselves artistic, they did not encourage their daughter to pursue a career as a “starving artist”.

Rhona was sent off to Ryerson college in Toronto to study the more sensible and commercial field of printing and technology.

‘'It was interesting, but not my passion,” she recalls. Following this, she went on to George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology to study graphic design, and there she found a subject that fed her creative flair: “I loved the graphics”.

For a while she thought that she would be a children's book illustrator. She refutes my observation that this is not a lucrative field: “No - it can be a thriving business, but you need to know the right people. You have to work the contacts and build your portfolio.”

As it turned out, 25 years ago, when she returned from school to Bermuda, she felt the pressure of having to earn a buck and ended up entering the advertising field as a graphic designer. She started work with Aardvark, then Hart Advertising and following that intended to freelance, but ended up starting her own business, Creative Dimensions.

Did she resent her career for keeping her from painting?

“It wasn't my time,” she says,” What's that saying? Necessity is the mother of invention.” The necessities of paying to keep the lights on, to put food on the table and to pay school fees, mean you just get on with it, she adds.

As it happens, the career she “invented” has not been a hardship, although it has had its challenging moments.

One of the toughest stages was when Creative Dimensions bought AAC six years ago. The merger was very difficult, says Rhona, but she says she knew that her company had to grow in order to keep pace with the market place. Implementing the change of culture was painful, but necessary.

“We had two different histories, two different work philosophies. Ours was flexible and a younger company. AAC was the oldest and largest agency; they were more corporate and had better systems in place.... We needed that structure.”

The agency is an associate of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide and can legitimately claim to have international reach and depth of experience across all marketing disciplines.

Asked what are her favourite accounts, Rhona reels off a string of high profile names, “Bacardi is a great account to work with... I like my little BF&M man... “ In terms of event planning, she says she gets a big kick out of doing Bermuda's stall for the RIMS reinsurance convention.

“I love my job. I can't wait to get to work,” she responds. “Painting was always a sideline. I kept my hand in.”

Rhona says her eyes have recently been opened to the commercial possibilities of art. Her husband, Mark Emmerson, is a professional photographer who specialises in platinum black and white photography.

“There's a perception that you can either be a good commercial artist or you can be a good fine artist, but you can combine the two. There is a market place for artists,” says Rhona.

Mark recently had a stand at the International Artexpo that takes place in February at the Jarvits Convention Center in New York City. There were over 700 artists who were exhibiting contemporary and traditional paintings, prints, posters, sculpture, photography, animation and decorative art. Mark's work was picked up by Wild Apple Graphics and was published internationally

“Art is a business. You have to do the painting well and you have to do the business of selling well. If you're not good at selling, you need a good agent,” she suggests. .

She says that advertising is like a “soup”. Usually, you have the creative people and the business people.

And never the twain shall meet? I ask. “Well, I always put the creativity first in my agency.”

“I'm not the best business person, I have good business people around me.”

She suggests that this is the key to being a good boss: “Hire clever people and let them do what they're best at.... My greatest asset is that I can collect good people around me who enjoy working with me.”

But much as she loves her job, she has a long list of dream destinations and painting projects that she is looking forward to.

“Once I hit 55, I'm out of here!” she laughs.