The decision to stop

At the cottage (detail)

Acrylic on canvas 

24 x 24 inches 

Barbara Muir ©️ 2021

I’ve been wrestling with a painting that started as a memory from a picture of the cottage that I went to as a child. With the progress of 2020, it became harder and harder to finish the painting. For one thing we were, and are under the constant threat of a pandemic. So at first the escape to a former time seemed sweet.

But over time the past seemed so disconnected from the present that I found it increasingly difficult to continue. So I put the painting away, and worked on other things. Last week I got it out again, introduced more elements into it, worked on it a bit every day, and last night got released.

  Released? Yes! I am not going to finish the painting. Tomorrow I will paint it out, and start again. But I will show you the part I do like which is the clouds and the horizon. And so it goes. Sometimes the long debate, the restless nights, and endless attempts to finish something, end in the recognition that this isn’t going to work. If that happens to you, do yourself a favor, and let it go.

You aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last. And something wonderful will come from giving yourself a break. 

Have an giving yourself a break day.