#222: Night at the Gallery II


Few days ago a guy visited us here and started to talk about painting with watercolor. He told how he had to produce several, maybe even a hundred paintings just to get one 'right'. Strokes had to be done fast and be placed on the paper in their exact, almost predetermined positions. The painting in progress was regarded as a failure if the prerequisites were not met. 

It's peculiar how the process of choosing functions, how one decides out of a hundred similar kind of paintings which one is the most right. And if one really succeeds in picking up the one, does this subjective opinion still stand the next day, week, month, year?

We forgot to ask what did he do to the leftover paintings. It would be such a waste if he just  tossed them away, so maybe he stashed them somewhere, maybe in the attic, just for the fact (and fun) that one day he or someone else would rediscover the paintings and go through the same choosing process once again. This re-found pile of watercolor paintings would not contain the already chosen one, because it's hanging framed on the wall, so ultimately what one would be searching for is the second best, the next one on the line. After the second best has been picked up, the evaluation and comparison between the first and the second one starts. If not earlier, it's at this very moment when the real hesitation begins.