Today I turned the dahlia painting upside down to get a better sense of balance with color and brushwork. When you change the way you look at a painting, you see things differently. I usually need to do this since over time, I’ve found that the left side of my paintings can be weaker since I’m a right-handed painter. The way that I hold my brushes gives the right side of the edges more attention. Here is where you can see that I have made the usual bottom part of the painting darker than the part that is normally at the top. I’ve done that on purpose. I’m including a photo of my glass palette that I’ve been using for decades. At the end of each painting session, I scrape off the paint with a straight razor. There is something soothing about the rituals of setting up your paint at the start and cleaning up at the end of the session.

This is a daily journal of my creative efforts as I prepare for my June 2026 solo exhibition in Poughkeepsie, NY, and my November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.