Last day of my residency at Lighthouse Arts in Newcastle yesterday. One of those days when you try to finish things, in this case some drawings I’d begun at Gosford Sailing Club the weekend before.

Normally it’s a bit of a chore trying to finish stuff in an environment that’s different to where you begun it (I once heard a painter talk about how she’d finished paintings started during her artist’s residency in Antarctica at home in the Northern Territory, and felt a mild sense of amazement: they were detailed images of ice layers).

Anyway, the Lighthouse residency made it easy. Whenever I needed to mix a particular shade of blue, I just needed to look out the window! And fortunately, just like the weekend beside the water at Gosford, yesterday was a lovely bright day.

One of the nifty things about working quickly is that it forces you to trust your instincts and commit to a mark. Just like a jazz musician improvising, there’s the exhilarating experience of a creative free fall. And, just like the musician, sometimes you play a wrong note.

Then, of course, when you look at the image afterwards it’s a question of whether you change the thing that you’re not happy with or just live with it. For example, yesterday I forgot to pack any yellow paint and I needed to mix a warm honey-coloured sandstone colour for some rocks. Stuffed around mixing some burnt umber, blues, whites and a naples yellow (reddish tint) but couldn’t get what I wanted. And one of the yachts had a lovely aqua coloured hull that I forgot to paint. So whenever I look at these images, I’m seeing some rocks that are too fleshy and a boat that would be that much better if it were green…

One of the nice things I’ve found about being an older painter is that I’ve learned to live with my mistakes. I used to destroy a lot of work – some of it quite good – in the interests of the illusive, slippery eel of perfection. Nowadays, I let the paintings have their own way.