It happened again recently: I was packing up from doing some painting, when a person who had been admiring the product (or at least the process) asked, "How long did it take you to do that?" I have learned not to answer in specific terms, so as not to give the impression that an image apparently executed in the short term would somehow be less valued than one laboured over for hours, even days. The easy answer to the question is "All my life," because the truth is that whatever we do, if we do something well, we bring to the process a lifetime of experience and as much practice as we have given it.       

     I may take an hour to do some preliminary sketches or lay down a painting outdoors, and then, given changing light and environmental factors (rain, more often than not!) take it in to the studio to look at some more and maybe do something to the work to bring out the best in it. For me, the process of "finishing" a painting could take a few hours or a few days of coming back to it over time. Or I may have to the good sense to just leave it alone. Above all, it takes a lot of looking. And just as the beginnings are important, so are the endings: watercolour, particularly, is unforgiving of being overworked--worked to death, really--where the sense of spontaneity and freshness can be easily lost.

     How long does all this take? A lifetime, for sure, and as I continue to work, I realize that I am still learning; if I weren't, the challenge, the attraction--the bliss!--would be gone.