Finished?

Sometimes it’s hard to know when a piece is finished.

On my studio wall one of my notecards says, “I’m learning my intuition.”

But how can that be?

Intuition is an instinctive knowing that something is right while not always knowing why you feel that way.

For me while intuition might not stem from conscious reasoning and is more “gut feeling” based, I believe it’s something that that can grow and evolve over time as you make more decisions and learn to trust yourself as an artist.

Intuition can be a powerful guide to figuring out what’s important in your work.

It can also help you know when a piece is finished.

When I chat with people at open studios I often say “knowing when to step away from a work is the hardest part.”

With this painting, I worked on it for days. It went through several phases where I could’ve stopped, but I didn’t. I took it from ugly, to beautiful, to ugly again over and over.

Even when it was “beautiful” my intuition kept telling me it wasn’t quite right.

I had some focussed intentions - such as depth of surface and some very vague ideas around contrast and composition - that hadn’t quite happened yet, but it was more than this.

It also just didn’t “feel right”.

Then one morning I walked in - quickly made four or five scrapes down the front - stood back and looked and instinctively knew that it was finally finished.

Developing your intuition is a deep and powerful part of your art practice.

It evolves from knowing who you are, what you want and reflecting on where you’ve been.

These are some of the things we work on in coaching.

If you want some help and guidance while learning your intuition, check it out.