What 25 Years of Practice Looks Like

People often ask how long a painting takes. It is a fair question, and the honest answer is: a few days. But that answer is incomplete.

What you see on the canvas took a few days to make. What made it possible took much longer.

I have been painting almost every day for 25 years. Not always on big canvases, not always on anything that would end up on a wall. Sometimes just sketching, experimenting, working something out. A lot of it was not good. A lot of it was practice in the most unglamorous sense of the word, showing up, trying things, failing, trying again.

By the time I start a painting, I have already spent years learning what works, what does not, and when to leave something alone. The decisions that look instinctive, the colour choices, the way a line moves, the sense of when to stop, Some of it has become familiar over time. The colour choices, the way a line moves, even knowing when to stop, come from years of trying things, getting things wrong, and learning as I go.

I say this not to justify a price or to make the work sound more impressive than it is. I say it because I think it is worth being honest about what practice actually means. It is not a shortcut to anything. It is just time, attention, and the willingness to keep going even when you are not sure where you are headed.