I pick up a brush, determine which section of the painting I am to apply my attention to, and get to work. I complete element after element in highly focused concentration until the entire painting is done. I put the brush down. I am exhausted, dizzy. Yet it feels as though maybe 10, perhaps 40 minutes has elapsed. I check the clock. 4 hours.

Being in the zone. It is well known that top athletes are required to find their way into the zone as part of their occupation. The same is true of artists.

Many artists will tell you that time stops when painting. Personally I find painting to be meditative and soothing. I like these aspects of painting but I'm not so keen on discovering my entire day/evening/morning has vanished.

For me, painting is far easier and more effective than traditional meditation to stop the chatter of the mind. It's quite a zen-like experience, albeit exhausting after so many unbroken hours. It's all I can do to keep up with my minds instructions to have the image fall out of my head and onto the canvas. The bottleneck is physical. The properties of the paint itself and how fast I can move.