My painting journal entry for the day:
A good painter is like a good gold digger. A painter goes to work and digs for truth. A gold digger goes to work and he digs for gold. Some days he may strike gold, however his job description is to dig. If he does not dig, he certainly won't strike the gold. But digging day after day, even so, the gold is not guaranteed to surface. After a hard day's work he goes home to eat his dinner and go to sleep. He does this on good days and bad days. And he is a good painter because he digs, not because he strikes.
Maybe this is simplistic to the point of not being quite true. Because to be a good painter you also have to have an eye to see when you strike gold.