I think - I think - it is somehow very useful, and maybe even essential, for a fine artist to have to somehow make his peace on the canvas with all the things he /cannot/ do. That is what attracts us to serious paintings, I think: that shortfall, which we might call "personality," or maybe even "pain."
that's true. then it's also a balance between that and learning new things. i like to go back and forth between learning new things, and then admitting how much i still can't do, etc