There is a half-finished interior on the easel since Tuesday, a corner of my kitchen with the window in it, and I have reached the stage where I talk to it. Not in a mystical way. Just out loud, small things, mostly complaints. Ah, non, that shadow is too cold. Come on.

The window is the problem. I have mixed the glass four times. The first three were dead, flat, a hole in the wall instead of a light source. The fourth is closer and now the whole thing reads wrong, the room looks lit for a different hour than the one I meant, and I cannot decide if that is bad or if it is just not what I had planned.

My teacher at the atelier would have said nothing. He would come, stand behind me, and after a while put one finger on the canvas somewhere I was not looking. That was the entire lesson. I miss it more than I expected to. Having someone whose eye you trust stand in your studio for forty seconds.

So, out of curiosity. When you are stuck like this, do you repaint the thing that is wrong, or do you repaint around it until it stops mattering? I am asking because I have done both and only one of them was honest.