Adopting a mindset of openness, exploration, and embracing uncertainty is the best antidote to feeling stuck. I remind myself to let go of trying to reach a planned destination for the moment and see what can happen when I try something different instead. I know that once I’m back into a more playful, experimental attitude, good things – surprising things – are going to start to happen.

In a series, paintings play leapfrog with each other, moving ahead and falling back in an asynchronous dance, until one by one they’re finished. This interplay between individual pieces and the ability to have one help the others along is the very best reason I know for painting in a series.

When we’ve seen something again and again, it becomes so familiar that we start to glaze over. What you desperately need is to see your work with fresh eyes. And fortunately, there are a multitude of ways to get that “first time” feeling with your now-so-familiar painting.