How about 20 years. I'm not kidding. I started this painting in 2004. I got it out recently and suddenly I knew how to do what I wanted to do 20 years ago but didn't know how.
I always had the vision, but I didn't have the skill or the paint-knowledge to know what to do. I left the original date on the painting and added the new date. Now I know that if an artist says it took them 50 years to paint a piece, they aren't kidding.
“We are the sum total of our experiences. Those experiences – be they positive or negative – make us the person we are, at any given point in our lives. And, like a flowing river, those same experiences, and those yet to come, continue to influence and reshape the person we are, and the person we become. None of us are the same as we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow.”
― B.J. Neblett