Q?: When is a piece done?

Hey all! So, I had the experience the other day of sitting in with my agency’s Art Therapist. My agency was hosting a sort of open-house event to showcase all of the services it offers.  As we sat in the Art Room drawing, clients came in and sat with us and began to work on their own pieces. One client began to work on a piece using watercolors. He expressed great delight in partaking in art seeing as he hadn’t done so since he was a child. He mentioned numerous times that he has a problem with messing with things too much and eventually ruining them.

At one point the client decisively put down his paintbrush and said his piece was done. The Art Therapist however would not accept this and instead encouraged the client to keep going and fill up all of the empty space on the page. As someone who also tends to continue to add flourishes until eventually I feel I’ve added too much and wish I could undo some of my additions, I related to the participant’s plight and felt annoyed with the Art Therapist for pushing him to keep going even after declared his work was done.

The whole experience got me thinking…how do you know? How do you now when to accept that it is the patient’s artwork and to respect that when they say it’s done, it’s done? How do you know when to keep pushing someone further even when they think a piece is done? I can see the value in pushing someone to explore a little more but also feel that sometimes it is just as hard to stop as it is to keep going and that should be respected. Curious if anyone has any thoughts or insights on this topic?