There are times in painting when you know something isn’t quite right.
Perhaps the colour isn’t working. Maybe a brushstroke has taken you in the wrong direction, or the painting has become heavier than you intended.
But often, you don’t realise it straight away.
You need to keep going for a while. You need more information. You need to see how everything else develops before you can understand what isn’t working.
And sometimes, it takes another pair of eyes.
Someone who can stand beside you and gently point out something you can no longer see because you’ve been looking at the painting for too long.
When you stop and put down the brush, take a few steps back and look again, you can often see things from another perspective.
I think life can be much the same.
This week has knocked my confidence a little. I’ve found myself replaying things, wondering what I might have done differently and wishing I could go back and approach things another way.
But perhaps there is something to be learned in that too.
Sometimes we don’t have all the information when we make a decision. Sometimes we only understand something properly once we’ve had time to step back from it. And sometimes another person helps us see what we couldn’t see for ourselves.
That doesn’t mean we have to stay stuck in what happened.
We can acknowledge it, learn from it and make an adjustment.
Just as I would with a painting.
A wrong colour doesn’t mean the painting is ruined. A brushstroke in the wrong place doesn’t mean you have to throw the whole thing away.
You work with what is there. You adjust. You paint over it and try again.
Perhaps that’s what I’m reminding myself of this week.
I don’t have to get everything right the first time.
I just need to be willing to stop, step back, look again and make the next brushstroke.
Outside the studio, spring is beginning to announce itself. There are flowers opening, new growth appearing, and little signs of change everywhere I look.
Perhaps that’s a timely reminder.
Things don’t have to stay exactly as they are.
We can pause. We can reassess. We can learn. And we can begin again.
