When nothing is wrong but doesn’t look that good

I worked a bit more on this selfie but I’m not quite happy with it. When my work doesn’t look so good to my eyes I ask a few of living masters for critiques and when they often reply that they don’t see anything off, I feel pretty doomed. I think this is the biggest challenge an artist would face after proficient level. I am currently learning to play the cello and have a lot of technical problems and a long way to go, so when my music sucks I don’t feel so bad since I know I’m doing a lot of things wrong that can be fixed. But in painting, I no longer have much more room to grow and improve on technical skills so when the work isn’t that good while there’s no technical errors, that’s a real issue, as it could mean that you lack in things that can’t be taught such as in artistry, or just lacking in talent, etc.

I think for art and music, people generally have about 20 years at maximum for growth and improvement, usually less. Then after that time period and after having reached personal maximum potential, one wouldn’t improve anymore. I’ve heard many elderly painters and musicians accrediting themselves by mentioning their 50 years of experience or whatever  but it’s pretty irrelevant. I’d also hear people saying “wait till they are 40!” referring to great young ones such as Sheku etc., but likely they won’t get too much better either. There are abundant evidences with many the greatest artists and musicians including Mozart who died young, and even ones that lived till elderly years have done their best work while they were young. For example with Vladimir Horowitz or Andres Segovia, you can hear that their performances during their latest years aren’t as good with Segovia even having rhythm problems.

I know that with myself having started painting very early in childhood, I stopped improving about 15 years ago and most of the things I post on Instagram are pieces from back then. Style and things could change over the years or by aging but doesn’t necessarily get better. As for cello, since I started three years ago I have 17 more years to get better on it