More and more I find myself, as a painting teacher, become aware of  a  little known fact that in many  instances of a student having difficulty with a technical aspect of execution , turns out to be  not so much a technical one but a personal matter. Take for instance the student wishes to improve the quality of the painted surface. One examination of the student's  procesures I find that the brushes are all stiff and  clogged with old paint. Also the palette might have not been cleaned for some time. One can draw the student's attention to the situation and suggest remedies. However, in many instances the student seems unable to get around to this task. The block remains.
I wonder if this is simply the force of inertia. Habits once formed can be most difficult to change.
Andre Lhote in his Treatise on Landscape Painting , dotes despondently that of beginners in art, out of a hundred students one cannot find more than one student whose vanity would not be offended when asked to do a preliminary sketch before proceeding with a painting. In life too,  there can be a huge gap between knowing what to do  and getting round to do it. We are not talking of  clearly difficult procedures, but quite simple ones. I for example have difficuty  dealing efficiently with mail that has just arrived; I tend to let it hang around  or carefully put it away in a drawer for attention later . It would be more saving of time to attend to the mail immediatly , especially filing. 

If anyone who reads  this  has  some anecdote to add to this section please  email :                        anpar@melbpc.org.au
 
 

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