The way I look at it, for me, 80 or 90% of the painting is done in the first sitting – perhaps in the first hour; the other 10 or 20% might take several more sittings – depending on what your artistic process is.   What if….. we got it right in the first or second sitting and just forgot about the other 5 or 10 sittings?

Even when a work of art takes a long time – it does not need to be constantly manually painted (you can work on it in your mind – you can think about it and plan).  Think about Howard Hodgkin – his paintings often take up to 5 years to paint - he might only paint on them when he’s in the mood for that painting and he has the luxury to not work on his paintings until he wants to.

Everyday, we’re different – we go though different moods, our bodies feel different depending on the weather, the paint or other materials we use might feel different one day than the next – different people may be around that affect our moods.  Money and Work issues can cloud the mind – something we ate can make us feel good or bad – and all of that stuff goes into the painting.

Wouldn’t make more sense to just go with one or two sittings and only work on a painting when you feel inspired with some aspect you want to change on a work than just paint on it everyday?

That’s why I mention it – because I see people working often on the same painting – paintings that kinda look like they could be done.  There is no “done”, it’s just when you give up.