Get unstuck! 5 ways to see your artwork with fresh eyes

Your painting is coming along beautifully….and then you stall.

My abstract landscape painting was in a pretty good place, with much that I liked about it…but it didn’t quite feel finished. I could see it needed something, but what it needed really wasn’t clear.

And I know this place well. It happens when I’ve been working on a piece for a long time. It’s often at the end of a work session, or at the end of the day, when I’m becoming tired. When I look at my work I’m beginning to glaze over, and I’m really struggling to see what’s there. It might be time to call it a day, take a tea break, or somehow find a way to trick my brain into seeing anew!

This particular day, I did something that often helps me: I took it outside into the sunlight, hung it on the shed, and took some photos. Now I could see what it needed, clear as day!

Seeing this piece it in a new location, in natural sunlight, and through the lens of my camera gave me the necessary fresh perspective that allowed me to see what I might want to do next.

See your artwork with fresh eyes

When we’ve seen something again and again, it becomes so familiar that we start to glaze over. Have you ever read something you’ve written, several times over, and still missed a mistake? Exactly. And the more you look at something, the harder it can be to see it clearly and objectively.

Chances are that when you reach the point of staring blankly at a piece of work in progress, you’ve been working on it a long time, perhaps hours, perhaps days. What you desperately need is to see your work with fresh eyes.

“Seeing with fresh eyes” means seeing familiar things with the sense of newness and discovery that you presumably experienced the first time you saw them.

And fortunately, there are a multitude of ways to get that “first time” feeling with your now-so-familiar painting.

5 strategies to help you “see” your art again

Next time you're stuck with a piece, try one of these ideas:

1️⃣ Approach from a new angle

Flip the painting sideways and upside down to see relationships within the composition differently. Look at it through a mirror, to reverse the image. Stand as far away from it as you can to check that the overall composition is compelling; viewing it as a small digital image can help in a similar fashion.

2️⃣ Time out

Sometimes NOT seeing your painting for a while helps get perspective. Turn it to face the wall, set it aside, walk away from it, don't look at it for several days...And give yourself a rest, too. It’s very hard to move ahead creatively when you’re tired.

3️⃣ Subliminal suggestion

Try keeping an unresolved piece just within view while you switch gears entirely. Have a cup of tea, do a yoga workout, prepare a meal, read a book in the same space as your painting and see what might surface when you aren’t even trying.

4️⃣ Location, location, location

Take your work into a different room, outdoors, in a different light, or simply place it against a differently colored background. You’d be surprised at how such a simple change will shift how you see your work.

5️⃣ Engage your left-brain

If looking at your work from a new angle, or in a new location isn’t giving you ideas, it could be time for some analysis to work out what’s not working. Use the principles and elements of design to prompt you. Have you got sufficient value contrast? Differences in line, shape, texture? Harmony, repetition, balance?

I can see clearly now!

With time we find the strategies that work best, and are the most practical for our unique circumstances. Living in a region of Canada with extremely harsh winters, my favorite trick - carrying work outside - is limited to a fairly short season. But changing location works so well for me that I’ve organized a place in my sunny backroom to hang work that needs a fresh perspective. Photographing and looking at a small image is also something I do frequently.

I hope I’ve given you something here that you haven’t tried before. Let me know if you have additional ideas to share, in the comments below!

Let’s connect!

Hi, I’m Lisa. Join me on this creative journey and let me share with you what I’ve figured out so far!

Harlequin, 25 x 25 cm. You can see more of this series on quadrants here!