This does occur quite often! The purpose of the throwaway panel is to provide a place that allows us to continually express ourselves intuitively, without thought or preconception. What the throwaway panel teaches us again and again is that even though we are not trying or even thinking, our hand, our inner soul, expresses itself in a way that is particularly strong and authentic. We don’t necessarily need to create our art this way, but it is curious and supremely helpful to see and compare the painting we are making when we are “trying,” to the one where we are not. It is very common to prefer the one that is made entirely by intuition to the one over which we labor. The lesson here is to bring more of our intuition, our hunches, our not-knowing into our art.
I try to comprise my art of 60% intuition and 40% deliberate effort. I find that my work is much stronger and surprising to me and the viewer when I invite my intuition into the process more.
Throwaway panels often hint at the kind of work we might be making in the future...more authentic, fresh and intuitive. All these characteristics are needed to make powerful, extraordinary art.