The magic of mistakes

Jake Spicer ladled more mulled wine into a coffee mug for me.

I was at the Draw Christmas party – Draw being the Brighton-based drawing school that is Jake's creation.

'I've been doing a lot of teaching in London this year,' said Jake as he passed me the mug, 'but I'm thinking of cutting back a little so that I can get back to into studio.'

'Sounds great,' I said.

'Yeah,' continued Jake. 'I've really enjoyed everything I've been doing, but as an artist, it's really important to give yourself enough time to make mistakes.'

I nodded. 'Wow,' I said. 'That's such an important point.'

'Nothing's ever going to come out right the first time,' said Jake, 'and even when you've reached a certain standard, you're never going to plateau out and always create great, useable work. So you need that breathing space.'

So true, so true!

Pearl