I've made mistakes and I have some regrets... And if I could go back, I'd do some things differently... But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that sometimes what is thought to be a mistake, often opens up a whole new way of doing things. Sometimes a bad thing turns out to be a good thing (or vice versa!).
In other words, there truly is no such thing as good or bad. Mistakes are really just experiences. It's how we learn, grow and create...
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
What I'm painting now is because of a mistake I once made. When I painted Norwegian Woods I had a deadline to have it finished and dry, so I used a fast-drying medium that I mixed with my paints. This caused the paint to be much thicker... Normally I paint a grey underpainting and then add layers of colour, but this time I couldn't do that. The paint was too thick.
So instead of wiping the paint off and starting again, I thought, how can I make this work? I took a chance and tried something new...
And it worked!
So I'm doing another :) This painting is also part of my forest series. I'm just using five tones of grey, black and white. With lots of abstract details, I'm working my way up from the bottom in one, thick layer of paint.
Creativity and new ideas come from taking chances on doing things differently. So, as it turns out, I'm quite happy with that mistake!
“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.”