If you read my last post, you know that I created a piece I was excited about and then lost it after asking for (and listening to) advice from others.I currently have many pieces in progress but I just couldn't let that one stay as it was. It was tormenting me with its utter 'wrongness.' Logically I know it didn't look that bad, nor was it miles away from what it had been, but it just hurt me to look at it because I knew it wasn't my painting anymore.So, I have continued to work on it and now, it is in a much better place. I don't think this is finished - there are lots of small refinements I would like to make - but it is in a place where I can happily set it aside for now while I work to bring others up to the same level.How did I do it?I listened to my own sense of discernment. I thought about what I liked in the first painting (drips, dots, bright luscious colours against deep darks, a sense of space and of organic movement, surprise splashes of blue in amongst the red) and then I worked to bring each of them back.The resulting painting is much richer than the first version and therefore more interesting to look at. Which means that my 'mistaken' changes maybe weren't mistakes at all. Perhaps they were just a much-needed detour.I spent much of my adult life living in Canada and the US and only returned to the UK 6 years ago.As soon as we arrived home, I knew how much I had missed it. I now live in one of the most beautiful parts of this beautiful country, among hills and sheep and stone walls and yet only a short train journey from busy towns and cities. I have it all here. I have to pinch myself sometimes.It would be easy to resent those years spent away, to view them as years that were stolen - years I should have been spending walking these fields and moors with unnamed dogs that I will never own. Years I should have spent with friends and family, sipping wine by cosy pub fireplaces. Years I could have spent worrying about my own country's politics instead of stressing about Presidents I didn't elect (or rejoicing in the one that I did).But in reality, I know these regrets would be pointless because I couldn't have come to this appreciation of my home country if I hadn't been away from it for so long. To leave wasn't a mistake - it was a blessing and a stepping stone to my current life.It's exactly the same with the changes I made to my painting. Without those detours, it would be in a different place now and I like it just where it is!