The opposite of artist's block!

I had a similar problem a few months ago Jackie. It sounds silly but I was so inspired by lots of different mediums which I saw on the gallery that I had to try lots of them and then seemed to lose my way. I couldn't settle to anything. I was a crafter before I painted and wanted to combine mediums so I went on You Tube to see if anything really inspired me and settled on Fibre Art (needlefelting). I am in the process of learning new techniques and am enjoying it so much. I have definitely got my "mojo" back. I'm not really sure if this comes under the heading of "artist's block" or whether some people can get over-stimulated. Perhaps other artists here can give you some of their own tips for overcoming these problems.

Sounds like a fairly extreme version of what I think is probably a fairly wide-spread problem - I make it worse for myself by working in three mediums (oil, acrylic and watercolour) and I tend to have long periods in which I'll paint in one to the exclusion of the others; and even longer periods in which I don't paint in any of them because I can't make my flaming mind up... this is why I've sometimes wondered if it wouldn't be best to concentrate just on the one: the snag then being - which one? I do tend to finish what I've started, though - I'd rather destroy something than leave it unresolved one way or the other. I think if this is what you're doing, i.e. not finishing, there's only really one answer - force yourself! You don't have to slave away at something, trying to reach perfection which is beyond all of us - sometimes, the 'less is more' rule, about which I do have some reservations, does apply. But you're clearly not happy leaving work half done, and the self-discipline to do it can only come from you by definition: just imagine you're someone else - or you're expecting a tutor to come round and see what you've been up to: give yourself a stern talking to along the lines of 'come on Jackie, stop mucking about and finish it!' It might be a slog to do it - you might not enjoy it - you might even spoil what you have done. But you'll feel happier for having gone and done it and should be able to move on from there. Finally though - there's nothing wrong with just taking a holiday for a month or so: experimenting, playing about with different boards, papers, mediums, paints, without having a finished work in mind. You'll learn from that, and sooner or later you'll want to have something to show for it.

I don't flit from one medium to another, but I do now have three large paintings in progress and I'm about to start another. I definitely need to gain some focus and get at least one finished, so I've hidden all but one portrait and I'm going to get back into my 'paint every day, no matter what' frame of mind if possible.

When I was at the height of my painting mode, I had a half dozen paintings on the go at any one time. If found that each time I returned to a certain painting I felt refreshed and was able to view it with "new" eyes!