A few weeks ago, I sent an email to about a third of my list and asked one simple question: what is holding you back from painting?
I wasn't sure what to expect. I got hundreds of replies.
I read every single one. And because I wanted to make sense of what people were telling me, I built a spreadsheet, grouped the responses by theme, and tallied them up. What came back was fascinating. Not because the answers were surprising, but because of how clearly the patterns emerged.
Here is what you told me, in order from most common to least:
Perfectionism, or analysis-paralysis
Technical issues (colour mixing, blending, layering)
Health reasons (being unwell, or caring for someone who is)
Not enough time
Too self-conscious, or comparing yourself to others
Overwhelmed by project size, or by too many art supplies
Not knowing how to fix mistakes or course correct
Work not selling
Not sure what to paint
Trying to paint from imagination and failing
I'm sharing this because I think it matters to see it written out like this. Whatever is getting in your way, there are hundreds of people on this list experiencing the exact same thing. That doesn't fix the problem, but it does mean you are not broken, and you are not behind. You are just human.
Perfectionism Is the Big One
It came in first by a clear margin, and I will be honest: this is where I get stuck too.
I can't count the number of times I have kept working on a painting long past the point where it was actually getting better. Fussing over edges. Second-guessing a colour decision I made an hour ago. Repainting a section that was already fine. At some point I crossed the law of diminishing returns and just didn't stop.
Perfectionism in painting often disguises itself as high standards. But most of the time, it is fear. Fear that the finished piece won't be good enough, so we never quite let it be finished. Or fear of starting at all, because if you don't begin, you can't fail.
This is a topic I want to come back to properly over the next few months. Knowing the what is not enough. We need to understand the why, so we can actually work on the how.
The Technical Stuff Is a Real Barrier
The second most common response was technical: not knowing how to mix the colours you are seeing, struggling with blending, not understanding how layers work together without muddying everything.
This one I can help with directly. A lot of the frustration people feel around colour mixing comes from not having a clear, logical system to work from. Every painting ends up feeling like starting from scratch. When you understand how colour actually works, that friction starts to disappear.
If colour mixing is where you feel stuck, my Colour Mixing with Acrylic course is built around exactly this. It gives you a repeatable system rather than relying on guesswork every time you sit down to paint.
The Ones We Don't Talk About Enough
A few themes on that list stood out to me as underrepresented in art conversations online.
Health reasons came in third. People are dealing with chronic illness, recovery, and caregiver fatigue. That is not a creative block. That is life being genuinely hard. And yet there is often an undercurrent of guilt around not painting, as though making art should somehow be easy to prioritise when you are exhausted or in pain. If this is you right now, please give yourself grace. The paintings will still be there when you are ready.
Overwhelm around supplies surprised me. A number of people are stuck not because they don't have what they need, but because they have too much. Too many brushes, too many colours, too many half-started projects sitting around. The weight of all of it makes it hard to just sit down and begin. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is clear your space and start with less.
Comparing yourself to others has always been part of creative life, but social media has made it harder. It is genuinely difficult to feel good about where you are in your own journey when you are constantly seeing the polished highlight reels of people who have been doing this for decades. Comparison is almost never a fair one, even when it feels accurate.
You Are Not Behind
The most important thing I want you to take away from this is that whatever is getting in your way, you are in good company.
Perfectionism. Technical overwhelm. Health challenges. Time. Self-doubt. These are not signs that you are not meant to be an artist. They are signs that you are a person trying to make something, and that is always harder than it looks from the outside.
I am going to be digging into several of these themes over the coming months, starting with perfectionism.
If there is something on this list that resonates with you, or a barrier I missed entirely, I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
Happy painting!
xx Marianne