Walking the trails in the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, I came upon this colorful bed of early spring blooming poppies. They were cheerful to see. But what really interested me were the closeup centers that attract pollinators and where the details and nuances of the individual flowers are on full display. These poppies are harbingers of the season and a talisman of continuing life.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
At the botanical garden in Santa Barbara, California, I stumbled upon this spiral labyrinth with a seating feature. Different than a maze since, it is not meant to offer different paths but a place to meditate while walking to the center and back. This configuration reminded me of the Fibonacci series of numbering I had embedded in a spiral over and around the image of a nautilus shell I had digitally imaged. This shell is also a representation of the Fibonacci series. The Fibonacci numerical sequence is created by adding the two numbers preceding it. For instance, 0 + 1=1. From there the numbers continue on to infinity, 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13, etc. This configuration is found often in nature, like this nautilus shell and also in the center of sunflower.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Visiting the Getty in Los Angeles can give you floral envy if you’re from the New York area like me. While the LA gardening zone is listed as 10B, which means they don’t usually have temps below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, which is below freezing, where I am in NY, it is Zone 7, where we do freeze. Seeing the Leucospermum in the gardens in LA, gave me a jolt until I realized that I grow specimen Chrysanthemums I love which bloom late through October-November, extending the blooming season considerably for me. Some tropicals I grow in my garden and then overwinter in my former root cellar/darkroom, now redesigned as a plant room, is cool in the winter but never freezes. Some plants overwinter well, others don’t. I might try the Leucospermum one year. Until then, I’ll stick with my Chrysanthemums.
Learn more about these flowers on Wikipedia
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Living in New York with our Zone 7 climate, the only Birds of Paradise I see are in greenhouses since they’re tropical plants and would not survive in our Northeastern winter freezing temperatures. I’ve only seen them as specimen plants but since I’m currently visiting California, I was surprised to see these stunning flowers growing in abundance in many of the parking lot islands throughout the shopping areas. They sure add a cheerful note to the landscape. I have often thought of featuring one of these flowers in a painting, but generally, I don’t like to paint such aggressive and angular forms. I lean toward the soft feminine rather than the angular male imagery. But the colors in the Bird of Paradise, AKA Strelitzia reginae are so stunning, one day I’ll be compelled to paint them.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
As an avid gardener, and also a person with a degree in horticulture with a specialty in landscape design, I was so impressed with the gardens at the Getty in California. They are works of art, no less than the work hanging on the walls indoor in the museum. If you know my work, you may also know my affinity for circles. You can imagine how much my heart leapt for joy when I saw the spiral plantings in the pond garden designed by Robert Irwin. All my work is inspired by gardens, mine and others. Having just come to California from a blizzard in New York, which dumped a foot and a half of snow in my garden, these sights of spring made my heart sing for joy.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
One of the things I do as an artist, is look at the work of other artists. I study their use of paint, thick/thin, wash or impasto. The types of brushstrokes, bold, tight, long, short. The way they their edges meet, sharp or diffused. I also look at their palettes, the selection of colors which often set the mood of a painting. Each painter has their own signature in the way they apply paint. It’s just like a non-artist’s signature, none of them are ever the same. There are endless lessons to be learned by studying closely the work of other artists. These works were at the Getty in Los Angeles, California.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Sometimes you have an opportunity to travel for a few days to attend an event and take a mini-vacation. Since the blizzard and continuing freezing temperatures we’ve had this year in NY, I’m lucky to be attending an event in California. The temps in NY have been in the 20s and 30s during the day and here right now where I am in CA it is in the 70s & 80s during the day and 50s in the evening. What a delightful difference!
Just north in LA, I stopped to spend a few hours at the J. Paul Getty Museum. It is an architectural marvel, an inspiring garden and a museum with significant artwork. I spent some time in the Impressionist section plus time with their two Turners. Berthe Marisot was represented with her painting, The Shuttlecock, which she painted in 1841 in Paris. It exhibits her trademark loose and immediate brushwork that she paints with bravado. The delicate palette spoke to me and was perfect for this painting of a young girl inviting you into her life. As an artist, I continually study art history and techniques in museums and books. It gives me inspiration and helps me to develop my eye and to view different methods of expression. Museums are great research institutions for artists.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
During the winter, one of the treats is having my Amaryllis come in bloom after the holidays are over and before the spring starts to pop color. I’ve had these two plants for a few years. Each of my amaryllis bulbs spends its summer outside in my garden, but still in its pot. They prefer to be snug rather than planted in big spaces. I keep them in the dark in my plant room until I put all the holiday decorations away. Then, I bring them into the dining room where they get southern sun through the windows and they begin to come back to life. Oh, and BTW, their real name isn’t Amaryllis, it’s Hippeastrum.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
I’m really getting tired of winter. For the last few years, we haven’t had much snow in my Long Island area. This year, I can’t say that again. The hours I spend in the studio each day, bring me back to the other happy three seasons I enjoy here in the Northeast of the US. Today, I overpainted the center of the iris painting with opaque pigment since I wanted to try a different treatment. Now have to wait for the paint to dry before I can work on it again.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Since I am very comfortable with technology, I use different programs where it makes me more efficient and productive. I’ve always used a grid system to upsize my drawings to canvas. Now I use Procreate in that capacity. Once I finished the composition in Photoshop, I imported the file into Procreate on my iPad and created a grid. Then, on the underpainting, I use pastel to transfer the grid and flower outline to the canvas. Using a wash of Titanium White and 50/50 Galgyd/Gamsol to continue to my painting process.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Today I began painting the color scheme for the underpainting using some of the inspiration from the space image I’d selected. My medium is a recipe of 50/50 Galgyd/Gamsol which I applied to the Cadmium Red, Naples Yellow Light, Titanium White, and Cadmium Yellow light paints onto the pre-primed cotton duck canvas. I love painting with fan brushes and used my largest #12 Simmons for layer over layer over layer of color. The freedom at this stage of the painting when there are no lines or images to acknowledge give me so much enjoyment. My glass palette is next to me on a white ceramic table that has lived with me in various roles for decades. Many dinners were served on it in past lives.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
I always work on my compositions on my computer since that’s the most efficient way for me to create. Since I’ve been working with computer graphics systems since the early 1980s, I am completely comfortable and also very open to experimentation on my computer. Since I want to make a square painting, I cropped the flower in multiple ways and finally decided on this treatment. Then I tried many combinations of images I have from NASA and selected the color treatment I wanted for the painting. Using masking in Photoshop, I added the space imagery behind the flower to give me an idea of how that would look. I liked the outcome and will use this as my model.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
When choosing a flower from my large collection of flowers in my Photos app, it takes quite some time for me to come down to a final selection. A few considerations I’m faced with are, what colors are interesting to me at the moment? What haven’t I explored before? Will I want to stand in front of this flower for endless hours? And is this choice something I would be proud of for eternity? I came across these photos I’d taken of a Southern Magnolia tree at the Clark Botanic Garden in Albertson on Long Island. The subtle smoothness of the petals, along with the striking center, stole my heart. I made a decision that this is what I’ll be working on next.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
For the last 35 years that I’ve been creating and maintaining my garden, I’ve taken many thousands of photos. In my Mac Photos app, I have sorted them into garden photos, flower photos, closeups of flowers and then into closeups of individual flowers. This collection is the backbone of my art. It is the inspiration behind all my paintings. Now that I’m planning my next painting, I again returned to my collection for inspiration.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
I do quite a bit of planning before starting new paintings. I have a large collection of images from the NASA Astronomy Photo of the Day website. I use these images as inspiration for the underpaintings on which I’ll then paint my flowers. The images of the cosmos are so inspiring to me. They help me to keep in perspective the chaos we too often live with. These images help ground me in reality and give me comfort. They are an important part of the thoughts I embed in all my art.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Another day in the studio working on the center of this painting. I decided to add some detail to the center of the seed pods, which is what happens as they mature in size. For years, I studied and worked in botanical illustration, but I’m not aiming for accuracy in my current work. I am interpreting what I see and know about flowers, but I don’t want to reproduce them in paint. I am instead trying to provoke thought and conversation about their and our purpose and place in the universe.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
When I stood back this morning to look at the painting I worked on yesterday, it didn’t seem so very different. But when I walked up for a closeup, I didn’t like the pollen I’d sprinkled. So, during this painting session, I overpainted the center. It wasn’t that easy since I paint in thin washes of color, so it took quite some time to erase the dots. Glad I use a quick drying medium recipe so I can work on the painting everyday.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
The way a painting looks is so very different based on the distance you stand from the work. I wanted to paint the center sprinkled with the pollen that falls from the ends of the stamens. Depending on the age of the flower, the pollen changes color and texture. I’m not trying to make a botanically accurate painting, but one that speaks in rhyme about the anatomical parts of flowers. Only the center in this painting is based on flowers.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Looking for inspiration for the center of my painting, I isolated various peony centers from my photo collection. As with all of nature, including humans, no two flowers look the same. There are infinite ways to visualize the life-affirming reproductive centers of flowers. Time of day, whether the flower has been fertilized, and the length of time since blooming, all affect the structure. I decided to interpret in paint the seed pods of tree peonies since they are so dominant and visually striking.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Each time I finish a piece of artwork regardless of what medium I’ve used, I document the work. I call this “productizing”. Each piece is given an Index number that will follow it throughout it’s existence. It title the work and at times the name has changed but the Index number never does. I use apps to track the work and a spreadsheet for quickly looking up the details of the work. The process I use is one I’ve developed over decades.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Today was one of those days when nothing remarkable happened in the studio today so I’m showing you some of the ugly but important views. There are some things that either make working somewhat less challenging and others that are a necessary component of the process of painting. Since I stand when I paint, the foam mats I have on the floor in front of my easel help ease the pain on my legs and back as I stand and move back and forth to view from different distances what I’m working on. On the table, next to my glass palette are the jars holding my mediums and brush cleaners. The mediums are what help me to control how thick or thin I apply the paint and is a critical part in the look and style of my work.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
I had read somewhere that the irises of our eyes are like fingerprints, none of them are alike. This intrigued me, so when I stumbled upon a business that photographed your irises, I handed over my charge card. The setup was just like going to the ophthalmologist for an eye exam. I put my chin in a cupped holder facing a large piece of equipment, which was the camera equipment. The camera was moved into position very close to each of my eyes. It took longer to write up the order than it took to take the image. Later, I received an email with a download link to retrieve the digital images of my irises.
As expected, my right and left eyes didn’t match, although they had mostly the same colors. For my upcoming show in NYC in November, I decided to make a painting inspired by my irises. Those iris photos are the inspiration for the painting that is currently on my easel.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
There are more tools that you need in the studio besides paint and brushes. After you finish a painting, there are additional tasks that need attending. One of them is preparing the painting for hanging on the walls. For that, one needs what’s called D hooks with screws, a ruler and marker to know where to put the screws & hooks, a drill to make holes in the wooden stretchers & tighten the. screws, wire to string from the D hooks, and a wire cutter for obvious reasons. I’m glad I found a very lightweight battery-operated drill quite a while ago, since it’s easy to handle and less dangerous around delicate artwork.
Another thing I do when I finish a painting is to write the Index # I’ve assigned to the artwork, the title, size, and medium. I also write the “© Mary Ahern” copyright insignia and sign my official signature on the wooden stretcher bars at the back of the canvas.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Today was a day for planning on where I was heading for a painting I’d started. I had plans in my mind about what I was imagining would work but I had some hesitation. So I decided to try a few potential solutions on my computer rather in my studio with paint. Having worked with computer graphics since the early 1980s, I’m very comfortable, let’s say, extremely comfortable, working out compositing issues and possibilities with pixels.
First I headed to my photo library on my Mac for candidates, then brought them in to Photoshop to try them out. It quickly became apparent to me that the intial vision I had for the painting wasn’t going to make me happy so I zigged and zagged into a completely different direction. By testing solutions in this way, I saved myself many hours, days and potentially weeks trying choices with canvas and paint. Now, I know what will work for me and I will just be able to move forward towards that goal.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
In the studio today I painted another thin layer of oil paint on what will be the underpainting of my next painting. An assortment of blues, along with a green and an ochre, helped to add some interest to the background of the painting that will eventually be painted over by my next flower interpretation. The paint was applied by an assortment of Simmons bristle fan brushes of different sizes.
The other project in the studio has been deciding on the name for my latest painting. When I started it, I used orange Clivia flowers for inspiration. When I found them less than inspiring, I switched to some orange double hibiscus. With a mind of its own, the painting decided it would rather be shades of pink and purple. Now, I’m working on picking a name for the painting. Any ideas?
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Busy today in the studio working on 3 different paintings. I oiled out the just completed hibiscus painting with a recipe of 50% Galgyd/Gamsol. I pour the mixture onto the flat canvas, use a large brush to spread it, and to get even, full coverage. After 5 minutes, I rub the surface of the canvas with a Viva soft paper towel to buff the extra mixture off and create a mild but even glow.
The second painting had me sketching in the outline of the flower using pastel that I’ll be painting over the initial layers on the round canvas. And the third project was unwrapping and gently sanding a fresh 30×30″ canvas. Then I began brushing on the beginning of an underpainting using an image from NASA as inspiration. I love being productive!
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
On my YouTube Channel I have a playlist titled, Take a Minute. These are short videos that offer a brief sanctuary from the rush of daily life. These short videos provide a meditative pause—a moment to breathe, reflect, and find calm amid the chaos. Let yourself settle into stillness and allow space for healing.
This is the video I made in the studio today.
Click here to visit my YouTube channel.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Ever sign a painting, only to discover you missed a spot? That was me today. I work on gallery-wrapped canvas and paint all the edges to skip framing, but when I lay my ‘finished’ piece flat, there it was—one unpainted bottom edge staring back at me. Matching the colors and brushstrokes was trickier than expected. Good thing I keep detailed notes on each painting!
Another day in the studio working on the underpainting. Played with a variety of blues, the turquoise, the ones that lean towards green and the warmer blues. Played with the values by adding bits of white to lighten, burnt umber to darken. Muted the blues with a bit of yellow ochre and added highlight oranges with Winsor yellow deep. Worked with a variety of bristles, sable, and fan brushes to vary the mark-making.
Today I took delivery of a new canvas and began a new painting. There weren’t many places for me to buy a 36″ round canvas but I found this one online at Dick Blick. It came boxed very carefully, I’m glad to say. My first concern is finding the center and creating the correct proportions for the underpainting. I dug out a compass from my wayback stash and it was the perfect solution. Then I proceeded to put the first layer of oil paint down. Very productive day in the studio!
Take a peek at this short video for studio glimpse!