I spent Sunday afternoon rearranging the same three pears and a teapot for the fourth time this month. Moved the light, tried a different angle, even set up one of those little viewfinder cards. And it still came out flat. Not wrong exactly, just... there. Like a photo taken straight on, no depth, no life.

I know all the rules. Foreground, middle ground, background. Overlap things. Put something in front of the teapot. But when I actually set it up and paint, I keep lining everything up in a row like I'm arranging it for a lineup. It's like my eye just defaults to the neatest arrangement and I have to fight it the whole time.

I'm wondering if this is more about how I see the setup than my brushwork, because the actual painting itself seems fine when I look at it as marks. Anyone else run into this? Where the composition is the wall, not the painting? I'm going to try moving the pears off the table line this week and see what happens.