Timing Is Everything

On the easel: Neighbors. 12x16 soft pastel.

It takes two to paint. One to paint, the other to stand by with an axe to kill him before he spoils it. - William Merritt Chase

Knowing when to stop is the mark of a true master. The rest of us rely on each other for 'Stop before you hurt yourself!' interventions, or we build regular pauses into our work flow in an effort to land somewhere near the right moment.

Other artists are the best coaches and I paint alongside them whenever I get the chance. On my own, once I'm painting I tend to forget about structured work plans, resulting in more than a few burnt cakes that end up in the trash.

It's easy to do. The flow state of painting - when you're wholly focused on this one action to the exclusion of literally everything else - is intoxicating. Flow has no use for time, to-do lists, or thoughts of anything other than what you're doing right now. Being in that state on a regular basis can be its own reward. But it doesn't always result in the best work and too often takes you way past where you want to be, like driving three exits past your turn because you're in your head (not that I did that literally yesterday).

So lately I am embracing the work in progress. I am starting a painting and walking away from it, without a real plan of when, or even whether, to finish. I'm learning that a day or two between sessions can shift my perception enough to take a painting to a better state. The only skill I really need in order to do this is a sense of detachment from the work. Luckily, as a child of the 80s, apathy is my native tongue.

Art is never finished, just abandoned. - Leonardo da Vinci