Studio Glimpses Archives - Mary Ahern Artist

September 16, 2026

This is an assortment of plants I’ve overwintered for years spending their summer vacation on the deck.

I donated the Leica enlarger and all the darkroom equipment to Farmingdale State for a fundraising event for the benefit of their excellent Horticulture curriculum.

This is a panoramic shot of the plant room in my basement’s former root cellar. Originally, I installed fluorescent lighting, but the room became too hot, which led to insect and fungal problems on the plants. The LED lighting doesn’t give off heat so once I converted the fixtures, the plants remained healthy all winter.

The weather is changing here on Long Island. The nighttime temperatures will be dipping into the 50s so it’s time to start bringing in some of my plants from their summer vacation outside in the garden and on the deck. In my basement, there is an unheated room that was probably a root cellar when the house was originally built. When I bought the property in 1989, I designed the room to be my darkroom. Once I went all digital, I donated my entire assortment of darkroom equipment to Farmingdale State, where I had studied for a degree in Horticulture. Since the sink and counters were there, it was easy to convert it into a plant room with just some LED lighting fixtures. I have all the lighting on timers and I mimic the daylight hours throughout the changes from fall, to winter and then spring. Having my garden indoors helps to keep my spirits up during the short days and long dark and cold nights of winter.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for solo and group shows in 2026 and 2027.
Check my News & Exhibitions page for additional information.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 15, 2026

The Co-Working group is a subset of the main Techspressionist group. We meet every Tuesday at noon and weekly attendance is entirely optional.

At the next general Techspressionist monthly meeting our Co-Working group will be presenting.

Today is Tuesday which means that at noon I met with a group of other artists who work with technology to create their work. We always discuss what we are working on, then spend close to an hour working on a project by ourselves because we turn off our video and audio. We work together alone and in silence. At the end of that time, we come back online and each of us shows something we recently worked on and a discussion ensues, questions are asked and answered. It’s a time for each of us to gain insights, share ideas, stretch what we’re doing. All of us work in different styles, use a very wide variety of tech resources and all of us are creating unique art forms for display in different types of venues online and offline. I’ve never been in a group before that was so welcoming and also had such a broad and long history with art and technology before. This Co-Working group is a subset of Techspressionism. Here is their statement: Techspressionist Salons are a time and place in cyberspace where artists gather once a month to hang out, share their work and discuss matters relating to art, philosophy, and technology. These meetups were conceived as a modern counterpart to the Surrealist salons of the 1920’s, in which artists could meet informally to socialize and discuss ideas. Techspressionism is a 100% volunteer-based international artist community. The main group meets the first Thursday of every month. You can join in from the website. The Co-Working subset meets every week. All people working using some form of technology, cameras, video, computers, software, hardware, different apps, AI, and other forms of technology assisted work are welcome.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for solo and group shows in 2026 and 2027.
Check my News & Exhibitions page for additional information.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 14, 2026

When I buy a car I always measure the inside to make sure my art will fit in.

Multiple stacks of bubble wrap are on high shelves in my laundry room out of the way of daily living.

Hubby Dave and I brought home all the artwork from my solo show at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie. I began driving in the pouring rain for an hour before it let up and by the time we arrived at the site, the rain had stopped altogether. After that three-hour drive, we took all the art off the walls, wrapped it in bubble wrap, and loaded it in my car. We also had prints and notecards that had been for sale in their gift shop. The drive home was only 2 ½ hours and we made it home before dark. We unloaded the car and carried everything upstairs to my studio on the second floor of our home. It took considerable time over two days to retrieve the work, drive it home, tote it upstairs, unwrap it, rehang what we could and stow away the packing material and the rest of the artwork. This is decidedly the unglamorous part of being a showing artist.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for solo and group shows in 2026 and 2027.
Check my News & Exhibitions page for additional information.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

This Week in the Studio – September 7-13, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses September 7-12, 2026

This was a full week, bookended by an ending and a beginning. Monday, I spent the day writing. My MailChimp newsletter went out, and pulling it together meant taking stock of everything at once: the Locust Grove show closing, the Ceres Gallery show opening November 3rd, my latest Substack article, and the piece just published in Sanctuary Magazine. Seeing it all in one place is a little exhausting, but I do love the work.

I ordered binder clips for the installation project. The wrong size arrived, then the right ones showed up the next day without me leaving my desk. In the 1970s, finding the right material meant driving from store to store. Now it arrives at the door.

The custom-printed fabric for the installation is pinned up, but it still needs hemming, and I don’t sew. Iron-on hemming tape has arrived, so that’s next.

I also solved a problem with my video setup. My gimbal keeps the camera steady while I’m walking, but close-ups of flowers were unsteady since my arm alone can’t hold still. A monopod to mount the gimbal on turned out to be exactly what I needed: light, easy to adjust, inexpensive.

Wednesday, 9/11, some days you want nothing more than flowers, nature, and time to remember.

The week closed out at Locust Grove. After three months there, the show ended on Saturday. Dave and I drove up from Long Island, three hours each way, and packed everything ourselves, paintings, drawings, prints, note cards, the print racks, and the baskets. The lifting wasn’t bad, we both work out with weights at the gym a few days a week, but six hours of driving in one day is not my idea of a good time. But it’s done now and we got home safe and sound!

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for multiple solo and group exhibitions in 2026 & 2027.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

September 12, 2026

This is the last day of the show at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie NY. It’s been there since the beginning of June. The summer sure went fast! Hubby Dave and I drove upstate from our home in Long Island which is about a three hour drive. We took down the work, wrapped it in our bags of bubble wrap and loaded the car. We had paintings and drawings for the main show and prints, and note cards they sold in their gift shop. There were also two wooden print racks and numerous baskets for displaying the work in their shop for us to pack. The car was not entirely full so there were no obstructed views which made for safer driving. Since we both work out with weights at the gym a few times each week, the lifting, carrying and packing weren’t too difficult. The driving was what was tiring. Six hours round trip with me behind the wheel is not my idea of fun.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for two solo exhibitions and a few group shows in 2026. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, was on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026. In November, 2026 I will have work in the Queens College Alumni Show and at Guild Hall in East Hampton, Long Island. Check my News & Exhibitions page for additional information.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 11, 2026

There are some days you only want to look at flowers, spend time with nature, and remember. This is one of them for me.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 10, 2026

Using my gimbal to steady my camera while I’m walking works perfectly. But I found that holding it for slow close-ups of flowers is unsteady since my arm moves. The image is not jittery, but a bit unsteady. I bout a monopod to mount my gimbal on so I can walk or stand still and get steady videos for most of my recordings. This monopod is exactly what I was looking for. Extremely lightweight, clips to easily adjust the height, a screw at the top to hold my gimbal safely and a few other options that just enhance the purchase for me. I think the amazing thing is that this excellent piece of equipment was so very inexpensive. I wasn’t shopping for price, but it is a definite bonus.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 9, 2026

Now that I’ve pinned up the custom-printed fabric for the installation, I need to hem it. I don’t sew! Not even buttons that fall off. A friend suggested I get some iron-on hemming tape. It was just delivered, now I have to get what we call, Around Tuit. I’m busy writing press releases and renewing my artist’s statement for the upcoming exhibition, so I’ll get around to it soon.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 8, 2026

In the 1970s when I made assemblages, I would get in my car and drive to many different stores to look for specific items or to just wander around until something I saw inspired me. Now, I sit at my desk and shop and in a day or so the product shows up at my doorstep. If I don’t like it or it’s the wrong size, damaged or I found something better, I can just return it. Shipping in either direction is usually free. Of course, we all know that nothing is free in this world, but at least I pretend that shipping is free. I ordered white binder clips for my installation project, and they were too small. So I ordered larger ones, and the next day, without getting in my car and driving, they arrived. Shopping has sure has changed over the last 50 years!

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 7, 2026

I spent most of the day writing, getting images, proofing and testing before I published my MailChimp newsletter to my mailing list. I try to publish one a month but I’m not very successful at that so it’s usually every other month. I had a lot to cover with the Locust Grove show closing on September 12th, the Ceres Gallery show opening on November 3^rd, my latest Substack article, and the article I wrote that was just published in Sanctuary Magazine. Also included a sentence or so about these Studio Glimpses posts. It isn’t until I pull all this together for one publication do I realize how much I’ve been doing. I get tired just thinking about it. Ha! But actually, I enjoy all the work I do. I’ve worked for myself for most of my career and you can’t be successful unless you love working all the time. Success to me is enjoying what you do.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

This Week in the Studio – August 31-September 6, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses

This week the installation for Centering in the Midst of Chaos started to become real. The custom-printed fabric arrived, and after a nervous day of not opening the package, I finally cut into it. The colors are bright, just as I’d hoped, printed from the centers of my oil and digital paintings. White doesn’t print, so a few petals will need some imagination to complete, but I’m not letting that small miss slow me down.

By Saturday I was up on the stepstool pinning the panels to the front of the installation to test my idea. It worked. The two panels match in size and position, and they’ll form the circle of circles at the entry just as I designed it. Next comes measuring and hemming, and I’m deciding whether to try iron-on tape myself or hand the job to a seamstress. Sewing has never been my thing, and I’ve made peace with that. We can’t be good at everything.

I also spent a full day recording the statements for each of the oil paintings in the show. It turned out to be harder than I expected, closer to acting or narrating an audiobook than writing. I wrote each statement first, then read it aloud maybe ten times before I felt ready, and it still took several tries per recording to get one I liked. Sitting up straight and breathing from the diaphragm made all the difference, something I hadn’t thought about since I played the trumpet.

In between, I spent a day at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum filming dahlias for the installation video, bees included. And my article for Sanctuary Magazine, on slow looking as a counterbalance to chaos, was published, which feels like it’s speaking directly to the work happening in the studio right now.

Scroll down to see all the Studio Glimpses for a behind the scenes view of how an exhibition comes together.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC which was on view until July 18, 2026.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

September 5, 2026

Today I got out my stepstool and pinned the custom-printed fabric to the front of the installation to see if my idea would work as I hoped. It will!! The two panels match in size and position, so they will form a circle of circles at the entry as I designed. Next step will be to take all the exact measurements and hem them. I’ve ordered some iron-on hemming tape and will first try it on some extra fabric to test how it will work. My other option is to hire a seamstress since sewing has never been my forte or interest in the least. I even take items to the tailor if a button falls off a blouse. We can’t be interested or talented in every single art or craft in my opinion.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 4, 2026

It’s prime dahlia season right now on Long Island where I live. Since I needed more video for my installation, I spent the day at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum where there is an extensive collection of dahlias managed by the Mid-Island Dahlia Society. The bees were having a wonderful afternoon buzzing around from blossom to blossom. Some flowers were more to their taste than others. I mounted my iPhone on my Hohem gimbal to capture the videos. This time I’m using a horizontal aspect ratio since it will be showing on the monitor. When I’m making content for YouTube, I use a vertical version since that’s the way that their Shorts are viewed. Those are mostly created for phone viewing. That’s the difference between deciding which direction to capture your shots, is the content for television/monitor viewing or for phone viewing. This just makes capturing a little bit more complicated and also creates a need for a much greater storage capacity for these different variations. I am careful to document in my storage which videos are which, so I can more quickly find the content for editing.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 3, 2026

The custom-printed fabric arrived. Actually, it arrived yesterday but I was too nervous to open the package until today. I’m so happy with the printing! I didn’t expect the two pieces to come in on one long roll of fabric, but that’s OK, I own scissors. The colors are bright just as I hoped they’d be. I chose a thin cotton weave from Printree’s vast collection and expected it to be more sheer to allow people to see through it a little so they’d want to go inside the installation. But it’s just fine. I’m happy with the outcome so far. This was a giant leap for me, selecting the images from my oil and digital paintings to focus on just the centers. I made one error, I hadn’t thought about the fact that the color white doesn’t print so the white in some of the petals will take some imagination. I’m not letting that minor error interfere with my enjoyment of creating this installation. Life isn’t perfect, and neither am I!

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 2, 2026

An article I wrote for Sanctuary Magazine was published today!

Some questions don’t have one answer. What am I doing to stay sane in these times? For me, it’s not doomscrolling. It’s slow walking through my garden, paying attention to the texture of a leaf instead of the weeds that need pulling.

My latest article for Sanctuary Magazine, Exploring At and Nature as a Counterbalance to Chaos, goes deeper into this, the research behind “slow looking,” and how centering and chaos live together in my work heading into Centering in the Midst of Chaos my solo show in Chelsea, that explores these issues this November. Read it now here: Sanctuary Magazine Article.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

September 1, 2026

I spent the day recording statements about each of the oil paintings that will be in my upcoming show. I have new respect for actors and for people who record audiobooks. Wow! It’s hard to do well. I used my DJI Mic Mini to improve the quality of my recordings. I wrote each statement and then asked Claude to review it, and “he” gave me quality feedback, some of which I incorporated. But the hard part was overcoming my Brooklyn accent and not garbling my words. I found I had to recite the statement about 10 times before I was ready to record. Then it often took two to four tries before I felt the recording was acceptable. I also had to sit up straight in order to get enough air into my lungs to carry me through the sentences. I had to breathe very much like I did when I played the trumpet many, many years ago. Inhale from the diaphragm, not from the lungs. What a great project! I learned a lot by doing it.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 31, 2026

I’ve been doing tutorials on my Hohem gimbal. There are so many controls on it that it takes a bit of time to learn them all. Each button has multiple actions depending on how many times you press it. The gimbal is used to keep my iPhone steady when I’m taking videos, and it really works well. It has an extension that lets me do high and low shots and a built-in stand for when I want to video myself while I’m painting. It can even track me if I move. The controller can be removed from the handle and used remotely. There’s a small lighting feature, but I don’t know how useful it will be for what I’m doing. There are so many variations of the Hohem and other gimbals on the marketplace. Mine is an iSteady V3 and it does what I want it to do.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

This Week in the Studio – August 24-30, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses

This week the installation moved from idea to something I could actually see working. I placed the order for my artwork to be printed on sheer curtain fabric that I’m planning to hang on the frame of the installation. I made myself press “Place the order” despite every voice in my head insisting I wasn’t ready yet. A large part of my week was trading iMovie for CapCut. The new video editor is so feature rich that I watched a lot of tutorials to find what I needed. Learning a new set of tools mid-project because the new editor is more versatile with horizontal and vertical aspect ratios added many additional hours to my work week that I hadn’t expected. Editing is its own craft, full of decisions. Sorting through many years worth of image and video content, writing captions and storylines, deciding on music for the background ambiance, and selecting the right transitions to use between clips. By the end of the week, the video draft for the display monitor in the installation was live on the Raspberry Pi. Headphones were connected and working as expected. The monitor booted up and automatically displayed the video draft I created. A power strip was mounted safely in a basket underneath the table, and all the electronics are controlled with the flick of one switch, including the water fountain. By the end of the week, I finished editing My New World – Anemone Redux, a video following one painting from 2018 to its 2024 revision. I hosted it on Vimeo rather than YouTube, which I’ll use for all the videos I create for the exhibition since it has no distracting advertising. Having a working system was a huge step to reducing the stress I’ve felt about bringing my ideas to fruition.

Scroll down to see all the Studio Glimpses for a behind the scenes view of how an exhibition comes together.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC which was on view until July 18, 2026.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 29, 2026

Another step in the creation of the installation has been checked off the To-Do list. The video draft has been uploaded to the Raspberry Pi, which shows it on the display monitor. The headphones are also now connected and the audio from the video is clear. All the electricity is running off one power strip located in a basket underneath the table. Security has been considered, and all electronics are resistant to unauthorized removal from the installation. The video on display can be changed by uploading it remotely, which is very convenient, as is the fact that only one switch on the power strip boots up all the devices, including the water fountain.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 28, 2026

I posted my latest video on Vimeo. It shows the painting of an Anemone from its beginning in 2018 to its revision in 2024. What isn’t shown is why I took it off the wall and overpainted some of it. What spurred the change in my work was that during Covid I began looking at the imagery from NASA. It made me realize that just as a healthy garden comes from cooperation and community, our galaxy also requires harmony for our continued existence. Recognizing that need for balance in both our macro and microcosms is now a thread throughout all my oil paintings.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 27, 2026

**View the Take a Minute Video on You Tube here:** **https://youtu.be/-w6KU07LKhg**

There are some surprises that stop you in the middle of whatever you are doing. This is what did that for me today. I was looking in my deck planters, and the sun caught these delicate strings of flowers from a volunteer grass nestled between the begonias I planted. The juxtaposition of the brilliant colors the sun was promoting on the undersides of the begonia leaves with the fine threads of an unexpected bloom just took all the stress out of my day. These are the moments of joy and the visual treats I experience each day that I walk through my garden. It is a place of miracles and wonder, as Paul Simon sang. The garden carries me through all the low points and makes my best days even better.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 26, 2026

Making videos is a far cry from making oil paintings. But, I’m doing both for my upcoming exhibition. Fifteen oil paintings, 5 digital artworks, and an installation are what I’ll be showing in November. When I had the idea to do an installation which will include video, I didn’t think about how much work would go into it or how much I had to learn in order to create it. After all, I’d been making videos since I borrowed a Super 8 in the 1960s. Capturing content is very different than editing a video. I found I needed a storyline. What was I trying to show? Did I have the right material to add to the timeline? Was what I was trying to express clear to the viewer? What is the context in which I wanted this video viewed? Did the video need captions, subtitles or voiceover? Was this video being created for a horizontal or vertical aspect ratio? How about music? Did it need it to set the mood, or would it interfere with the message? So many considerations I hadn’t really thought of in depth before. This is what I’m dealing with now.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 25, 2026

I’ve been working on editing videos for both the installation and for the wall label QR codes for my upcoming exhibition. For years I’ve used iMovie for editing, but they don’t handle vertical videos well, so I decided to move over to CapCut. Oh my! What a difference! There are so many additional editing features available in the new program that every time I’m working with it, I spend even more time doing tutorials. There is so much information online from CapCut itself but also from a wide variety of independent instructors. Many of whom are excellent. I’m working on making a draft of the video I’ll be displaying on the monitor that will be inside the installation in my upcoming exhibition. Each step along the way is taking far more time than I ever expected. So glad I’ve been working for months on this part of the project.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 24, 2026

Today I placed the order for the sheer cotton fabric for the curtain that will hang on the front of the multi-sensory installation I’m creating for my upcoming exhibition. My own artwork will be printed on the fabric. Printree, the vendor, has a good website with an abundance of information which helped considerably with the ordering process. Before I created the artwork, they encouraged me to meet online with someone to go over the details of my printing project which was critical to getting the outcome I’m hoping for. Even with all this support, I found it difficult to push the “Place the order” button. There are always a million details in your head telling you that you’re not ready. But for years I’ve studied the many tricks we use to put obstacles in our way of getting things accomplished. My marketing guru, Seth Godin, often says, Ship It! So I clicked the button and moved on to the next part of the project.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

This Week in the Studio – August 17-23, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses: Week in Review
Week in Review August 17-23, 2026

This week I worked on the entry curtains for my November installation, Centering in the Midst of Chaos. After a meeting with Printree, the fabric printer, I had the fabric specs I needed and built a circular grid in Photoshop of some of my artwork to make an entry statement into the installation. Partway through, I realized I’d made this shape before, over 20 years ago, drawing the Compositae family for my Botanical Illustration Certificate. Circles within circles, decades apart. Different tools, same center.

Sharing the project with my Techspressionism group led me somewhere new too. A member connected my work to the Healing Arts movement, and I’ve been reading the book she recommended, Your Brain on Art, ever since. Slowing down and looking closely has always been at the heart of what I make, in paintings and in my garden alike. I also spent a day sorting out Vimeo versus YouTube, deciding to keep YouTube for my regular videos and host exhibition work on Vimeo instead. I finished the week masking the centers of my artwork in thin transparent layers so they will print on the sheer fabric hanging on the installation. I’m chasing that same sense of transparency in pixels that I’ve always worked toward in paint and also my life.

Scroll down to see all the Studio Glimpses for a behind the scenes view of how an exhibition comes together.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 12, 2026, and my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC which was on view until July 18, 2026.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 22, 2026

I’m creating the graphics that will be printed on the sheer cotton fabric I’ve selected for the front of the installation. I paint in thin transparent layers and I’m trying to duplicate that for the overlapping floral centers. The unit itself comes with an opaque curtain fabric, but for my purposes, I want there to be a feeling of some transparency, so I’ve selected the sheer cotton weave from the printer. The artwork is derived from my own work. The five floral centers on the left are from some of the digital paintings I create using Corel Painter. The five on the right are from my original oil paintings which I create with fan brushes, oil paint on cotton duck canvas.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 21, 2026

For the installation for my upcoming Exhibition, I’ve been recording the songs of the birds who come to visit in my garden. The Merlin app is installed on my iPhone and it captures, not only the sounds of the birds, it identifies them for me so I can learn the different bird calls. There are different times of the day when the birds are more active and sing for their supper, shall we say. I had no idea that such a wide variety of them come on a daily basis to enjoy the water and other nourishment they find throughout my garden. Their sounds are so calming to me as I sit out on my deck and enjoy their serenade.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 20, 2026

Today I spent time researching the differences and best uses of Vimeo and YouTube. On YouTube, which I’ve been using for years to post videos of my garden, studio, work in progress, and my series of Take a Minute videos, is more commercial. Since they don’t charge for posting on my own dedicated channel, I am the product, which means they are using my work to sell advertising to generate income. Nothing is free. If you don’t pay for something, you need to figure out how a company is generating revenue from you in other ways. Vimeo has a free intro plan but quickly becomes limiting, which encourages you to purchase a monthly or yearly subscription. Because of this, however, no ads for other products or sources pop up at the end of my video. This is a more professional presentation for posting work that will be connected to my art exhibitions. I’ve decided that I will use both but in different ways. I’ll continue to use YouTube as I’ve always done, but will host my Exhibition work on the Vimeo platform since it’s more upscale.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 19, 2026

I spent today designing the graphics for the sheer entry curtains that will hang in the installation for my November show. Partway through, something clicked. I’ve made this design before. Over 20 years ago, working toward my Botanical Illustration Certificate at the New York Botanical Garden, I drew the Compositae family, flowers whose petals all radiate from a central circle. And here I was again, decades later, building circles within circles. It’s strange and grounding to catch yourself returning to the same shape across a whole career. Gardens, drawings, pixels, oil paint. Different tools, same center.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 18, 2026

I am in a co-working group of artists who meet on a regular basis. The connection is that we all create art using some form of technology in our work. The main organization is called Techspressionism. This week I shared with the group this Studio Glimpses column and the installation project I’m creating for my upcoming show. When I finished speaking, one of the members pointed out that my work is actually aligned with the Healing Arts movement. I had never heard of it but she sent me some links to get started, I was engaged immediately and by the next day I was sitting on my deck reading the book, Your Brain on Art. For many years my work has focused on encouraging viewers to slow down and spend time thinking about what I’m trying to say with my large flower paintings and the abstract galaxies I layer them in, under and in-between. Slowing down, looking and thinking is a big component of the focus of my work. Using another creative medium of mine, I have been designing my own garden over the last 35 years. The space I’ve created isn’t for sitting on a proscenium looking a flowers in the distance, it is for wandering along the woodland walks and meditating on the subtle changes that nature provides on a daily basis. The journey through life and the journey meandering in my garden are both subjects of contemplation in the things and spaces I create. Now I’m beginning to have new language for my work which I’m just now learning to fold into my writing. This also is part of my continuing journey. A huge thanks to Marya Triandafellos for pointing me in this new direction. See her incredible work here: https://www.marya.nyc

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 17, 2026

I have been working on designing the curtains for the front of the installation for my November exhibition. I’ve been back and forth with ideas and think I may have finally decided on a design that works given the theme of the show, Centering in the Midst of Chaos. I’ve included a photo of the installation in its current state to help you visualize the design concept. The printing on the sheer cotton fabric will serve as a welcome entry into the nearly visible interior, with a monitor showing video, a water feature, and headphones for audio, all surrounded by plants. After a meeting with customer support at Printree, the fabric printer, I now have the dimensions of the width of the fabric and a better understanding of their filetype requirements. After determining the circular design, I created a grid and layout in Photoshop, adding various round shapes to determine scale. Once I determined the format, I gathered some of my digital artworks, and then using the matte feature I brushed out the exterior petals using my Wacom tablet and stylus, leaving only the centers to support the circle concept. The right panel will have centers of some of my oil paintings.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

This Week in the Studio – August 10-16, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses: Week in Review
August 10-16, 2026
This week the pieces of “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” kept clicking into place. It started with a studio lighting fix, new LED bulbs that finally solved a flickering problem I’d wrongly blamed on the switch. From there I moved forward on creating my installation: a Zoom with Printree to nail down the specs for my curtain fabric, then off to Micro Center for the display monitor. The water feature arrived and fit the booth perfectly. I gathered footage for the meditation video, drawing on the spirit of my Take a Minute You Tube series. I also picked a new microphone, the DJI Mic Mini, for recording the painting statements that will accompany each work. And on my Naturally Inspired Substack column, I wrote about my little six-year-old self who first taught me to look closely, and how that habit of observation became the center I keep returning to.

Scroll down to see all the Studio Glimpses for a behind the scenes view of how an exhibition comes together.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC which was on view until July 18, 2026.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 15, 2026

I have a Substack column titled Naturally Inspired where, just about every other week, I post articles about art, gardens, aging gracefully and staying centered. Today’s post was about how living a life as a six-year old girl calmly looking and absorbing my surroundings in nature, led to a lifetime of close observation that still is the source of all my art and where I find my center.

Here is a link to the article on my Substack column. You can subscribe if you choose.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 14, 2026

The lights in one of my studios weren’t working very well lately. I thought it was the switch since I had to flip it on and off multiple times before all the bulbs would light. The electrician I’ve used before came and immediately determined that it wasn’t the switch but the ballast in the fixtures. So, he rewired them and brought six brand new LED bulbs which fit easily into the existing fixtures. He set the switch on each of the bulbs to 5000 degrees Kelvin which was a selection between daylight and incandescent lighting. The lighting in the room looks great and the problem with what seemed to be the switch is no longer a problem. It’s always great to see a person at work who knows exactly what they’re doing and does it carefully. They are artists in their own field of work.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 13, 2026

Today I gathered video content for the installation I’ll be showing at my upcoming exhibition, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos”, which will open on election day, November 3, 2026. I have a series on my YouTube Channel called Take a Minute Videos, this is what they are for: Take a Minute Videos 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. I’m working on a video presentation with this theme.

Visit my YouTube Channel to see more of my videos.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 12, 2026

I’m going to be doing audio recordings of the statements I’ve written about each of the paintings in my upcoming exhibition. After testing I realized that I needed a better microphone than what comes installed in my computer. Doing research on an affordable option for using the microphone on my iPhone and also on my desktop Mac, I chose the highly rated DJI Mic Mini. Nice and easy setup and very clear audio playback. I have a lot of studying to do to understand the jargon of audio work but that’s part of the fun of creating. There’s always something new to learn.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 11, 2026

The water feature I ordered a few days ago showed up today and I think it’s perfect. The size is right for the booth and the color, or lack of color, works for me. There is a pretty big water basin so I believe it will hold enough water to last for two or more days which shouldn’t be a problem for the gallery sitter to take care of. It’s run by electricity so will have to be plugged in to the power strip that will be below and behind the curtain. Plants under the table will be hiding all the cords once the installation is set up in the gallery. Another part of the project fell into place with this water feature today. Glad to check it off my ToDoist list.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

August 10, 2026

I had a zoom meeting with a rep from Printree.com to discuss the specs I need to consider when designing my on-demand printing for the curtains of my installation. They were very helpful with clarifying the size of fabric I need to work with, the widths, and the number of yards. Also, the resolution they use is 200dpi rather than my usual print settings for 300 which is important they said since it might throw the design out of proportion. They will give me a view of how the design will look before the printing begins, which is great, and they can also supply me with a print sample to evaluate the color if I choose. They use the sRGB profile which is important to know for color accuracy. Following that Zoom, I went to Micro Center to buy the display monitor for the installation. It seems a bit smaller in height than I expected but it met the width requirement. The aspect ratio is scaled for video display.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.
It will feature digital artwork, oil paintings, and a multimedia installation.

This Week in the Studio – August 3-9, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses: Week in Review
August 3-9, 2026
This week was largely about research and problem-solving for the November installation. I spent a good chunk of time in Photoshop testing what to print on the fabric panels, eventually landing on the idea of masking just the centers of my paintings, a nod to the show’s title, Centering in the Midst of Chaos. I also lost hours searching for the right water feature, one that could bring a sense of calm into the space without fighting its aesthetics. Alongside that, I worked in CapCut editing garden footage for the video component, including a hibiscus that bloomed and was gone within a day. And on Saturday, family pulled me away from all of it, a long drive to Brooklyn, an audiobook about Frances Perkins, and a reminder that the work will always be there when I get back.

Scroll down to see all the Studio Glimpses for a behind the scenes view of how an exhibition comes together.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC which was on view until July 18, 2026.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 8, 2026

Hubby Dave was a an over 200 mile bike ride this week from Troy NY to Brooklyn where I picked him up. The next day he took the train back upstate to retrieve his car. During the ride he celebrated his 75th birthday!

I had read off and on about Frances Perkins from a variety of sources but this book is a perfect example of why we have not learned more about her amazing accomplishments in improving the lives of millions or human beings.

A busy day for me, but I did not work on the projects for the upcoming exhibition. Family first. Drove into Brooklyn to pick up hubby Dave from his Cycle the Hudson Bike Ride, which he’s been doing for the past week. 200 miles of biking and then sleeping in a tent for a week. Different strokes for different folks. The round-trip drive took me over 4 hours due to traffic, but I listened to an audiobook about Frances Perkins, who helped found Social Security, a 40-hour work week, unemployment insurance, and more, working for FDR during the depression and WWII as the first woman in the Cabinet. She was the Secretary of Labor. Thank you Frances!

The book title is “The Woman Behind the New Deal. The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience”.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 7, 2026

Working with CapCut today to edit the videos that will be part of the installation project for the November exhibition. I like to capture close-up videos of flowers and features in the garden that I find interesting. I spend a considerable amount of time in the garden just looking. It is a place to regain balance and harmony in my life. A place to put stress aside and just be part of nature. To ponder why. Why are these flowers the way they are? What is the purpose of their existence? What is ours? I find these quiet conversations with myself calming and relaxing.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 6, 2026

In the close-up process of editing the Take a Minute video, I realized that I’ve painted a version of a hibiscus flower before so I went hunting through my archived documentation.

This painting of a Disco Belle Hibiscus was in an exhibition in January on Long Island and is currently in an exhibition in Poughkeepsie NY.

While I was editing my Take a Minute video with the hibiscus, I realized that a while ago, I had made a painting of another hibiscus flower I had in my garden at the time. This year it has been in two exhibitions. In January it was on view at the Art League of Long Island, and currently it is in the show, Portraits From My Garden, until the middle of September 2026.
You can take a closer look at the original Disco Belle Hibiscus oil painting on my website here.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 5, 2026

Today I was treated with this amazing hibiscus flower which one day will end up in one of my paintings. Instead, I captured video of this beauty, and it will end up in the installation piece in my show in November. Hard to believe that the plant creates this stunning piece of color and complexity for it to last only one day. By later this evening, this flower will have already crumpled and collapsed. But for a few short weeks, there will be another bud opening in the morning, whose only job it is to attract pollinators.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 4, 2026

Working on my installation project for my upcoming exhibition in November again today. This entire show’s theme and focus are about centering and staying calm in chaotic times. My own history comes into play with this subject. One of the many ways I stay calm is to meditate, another is to be in my garden, other gardens or by spending time in nature. I find the sounds of nature, birds, and water are calming for me too. One of my friends said that in that case, I need to add water to my installation. So today I spent hours looking for just the right water feature to fit in the installation space and have the aesthetics in keeping with my vision. You can lose hours of your precious life looking for just the perfect something or other, can’t you!

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 3, 2026

I decided to work on what images I want to have custom printed on the fabric panels of the installation. Initially, I thought about my tall ornamental grasses since the panels will be about 24” wide and about 70” tall. Ornamental grasses would work well for those dimensions. But there would be no flowers or colors echoing the paintings on the four walls of the gallery. One friend suggested printing my paintings, but I didn’t want to put squares and rectangles. Then I pictured just parts of my paintings. Mostly the centers. That would pick up the theme and title of the show, Centering in the Midst of Chaos and echo the colors around the gallery. So, I spent the day working in Photoshop and masking some of the paintings just to see whether that might work. I still haven’t decided, but at least I’m experimenting.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

This Week in the Studio – July 27 – August 2, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses: Week in Review
July 27-August 2, 2026
This week centered on the installation piece for Centering in the Midst of Chaos. I chose PrintTree in Long Island City for my curtain fabric, drawn to their proximity and how well their samples showed color and text, and I’m leaning toward a translucent print that invites people to peek in and step inside. I found the right table on Ikea’s website after days of hunting, one tall and shallow enough to leave the curtain room to drape behind it, and it fit the space exactly. I settled on a mid-size monitor, big enough to hold presence without crowding the viewer, and chose horizontal video format over vertical for a calmer, more natural feel. Alongside the installation work, I spent two days writing personal statements for each painting, and kept building my CapCut skills with another “Take a Minute Video.”

Scroll down to see all the Studio Glimpses for a behind the scenes view of how an exhibition comes together.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC which was on view until July 18, 2026.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

August 1, 2026

I’ve now spent two days writing statements about each painting that will be in my solo show in November. Each statement is a personal remembrance of what I was thinking about, or inspired by, or reacting to when I began each painting. It took many hours to write the drafts and then came the rewrites and rewrites of the rewrites. I will be using these statements in a variety of ways in written, video, and audio formats, so it was important to create something that would work well in a variety of media. Not an easy task at all but very well worth the effort.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 31, 2026

One of the things I have to decide is what aspect ratio to use for the video portion of my installation for the Nov exhibition. I had thousands of videos but had to do some sorting. First was to split the horizontal & the vertical videos. Then to sort them by subject. I was looking for how many usable videos I had available to edit into the video loop I plan to create. Even though I have far more vertical format videos, I’ve decided that for this project I want to use the horizontal format. Humans are used to seeing things horizontally. We view televisions horizontally. We read paper books horizontally. Our eyes are balanced horizontally. I believe more calmness is perceived if we see images in a horizontal format so that’s what I’m going to create.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 30, 2026

This 8×10″ image on the table is just too small to make a statement.

I’m thinking that this 12×16″ image would make a good size for a monitor given the restricted space. Standing in the confined area, looking at the images on the monitor of this size would be comfortable and even a bit cozy.

A 16×20″ monitor would make you want to step back and that would not be feasible in this structure since it would make the space too claustrophic

The next decision I’m contemplating is the size of the monitor I want to put on the table. Too big and you want to stand back from it, which won’t work in a tight space. Too small and it won’t have gravitas. Not having a variety of monitors in different sizes to trial, I put different sized prints on a stand on the new table inside the structure. I think the middle size is the Goldilocks decision since it has the right amount of screen space and will encourage the viewer to stand at an appropriate distance and not feel claustrophobic.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 29, 2026

Here’s a screenshot of the table I found on the Ikea website. Fortunately, there is an actual store about a half hour away so I was able to pick it up immediately, and assemble it to see if it worked well for its use. It did and that’s another item to check off my To Do list. BTW, it will be easy to transport to the gallery for the exhibition since the legs unscrew from the bottom of the table.

The simple white table from Ikea fits perfectly and has adjustable legs, which allow for standing and working. I moved the curtain further back to drape behind the table and will have another solution for the front of the structure.

For my installation project, now that I have the structure and the fabric samples, I turned my attention to the surface I need in order to put a monitor on for the video I’m creating. The table had to be taller than a desk and wide enough to fit well into the back of the display. Once I had the structure assembled and the curtains attached, I felt the space was too claustrophobic if I added the necessary table. So, I didn’t want one that was too deep but just enough so that the curtain could be draped behind it and thereby extend the floor space beyond that footprint of the structure. I spent hours upon hours researching possibilities. Desks were too short for the viewer who would be standing, and standing desks were beyond the budget. There were so many things to consider, such as color, simplicity of style, height, depth, width, and, of course, budget. I finally found one on the Ikea website, and it fit all the specifications. So off we went to pick it up at the store, which is about a half hour away, brought it home, and assembled it immediately. And Bingo! It fit perfectly, just exactly as I had envisioned what would work. Yet another part of the installation falls into place. Now on to the next task.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 28, 2026

Now that I have received fabric swatches from three different on-demand fabric printers, I’m deciding to work with the one located in Long Island City, since they are closer to me than the North Carolina and Canadian companies. Their prices and shipping are very competitive, which doesn’t hurt either. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the fabric samples I’m considering from PrintTree, and I like the way they print images, color, grayscale, and text on their samples so you can see the full breadth of color and text printing quality. My thought is that I’d like to have my own art printed on fabric to use as curtaining for my installation at my upcoming show at Ceres in November. I’m leaning towards using a translucent fabric which might intrigue people if they see outlines of what is inside and decide to enter and view the entire presentation display.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 27, 2026

I’ve been doing more tutorials on how to use CapCut. For years I’ve edited with iMovie but found it limiting when working with vertical formats. So, on the recommendation of many friends, I decided to try this, new to me, app. I’m using the desktop version since editing on my iPhone isn’t appealing to me, although I’ve been using InShot for some social media posts. But I wanted to up my game a bit so I’m biting the bullet and working with the Pro Version of CapCut. It has too many TikTok-style effects that don’t interest me, but I’m coming up with ways to streamline my workflow around them. Here’s my first “Take a Minute Video”.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

This Week in the Studio – July 20 – July 26, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses: Week in Review
July 20-26, 2026
This week took me from Ceres Gallery to my own backyard planning table. I spent a day in Chelsea helping hang our next group show, then wandered back to Penn Station along the High Line, gathering ideas as I always do. At home, I used Art Placer to mock up the gallery walls for my November solo show, testing how the paintings might live together, such a relief for a visual learner like me. Dave and I took a break to celebrate 29 years of marriage, returning to the Northport Harbor dock where it all began. I got back to work composing my newsletter (and was reminded, happily, how much I actually accomplish when I stop staring at my unfinished To-Do list). And I kept working through the early stages of the installation itself, testing a table and draped fabric as one possible solution to the curtain problem, narrowing in on possible dimensions, and welcoming a batch of fabric swatches that opens up a whole new set of decisions to consider. Every step forward seems to bring more options rather than fewer, and I’m enjoying following where it leads.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC which was on view until July 18, 2026.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 25, 2026

The fabric swatches I ordered have arrived. This is for the installation project I’m designing for my upcoming show in November. I’m thinking of having my artwork printed on fabric and using that instead of the curtain that came with the frame I ordered. These printable fabrics come a wide variety of material and weights. Some are sheer and see-through and others thick and opaque. Once I decide on the fabric and the cost of printing, I’ll decide if this part of the installation is feasible. Lots of steps yet to go. I’m enjoying the process, it’s very creative since there are so many variables.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 24, 2026

One reason I chose this particular booth set-up was that the front was circular. Considering that so much of my iconography is about circles and spheres, this was a great addition to my quiver of ideas.

I rolled one of my smaller tables into the booth but kept it out back beyond the frame. This allowed me to add another foot or two to the interior and make the interior far less claustrophobic.

Today I focused on the structure of the installation I’m making for my next solo show. I hung the curtain that came with the frame to see how I would be hanging the fabric. The curtain that comes with the frame is the perfect size for the use it was designed for but proved to make the interior of the space too claustrophobic for my unique project. I put a table outside the frame footprint and draped the fabric to the outside of the table which proved to be a good solution because it gave more freedom to resize the interior. A 12” by 40” table or shelving would be the perfect dimensions so it’s going to take some research to find that size. The table needs to hold a small monitor. Today I got some important factoids which moved the project forward.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 23, 2026

I spent the day composing my latest newsletter. I’ve been using MailChimp for many years since I moved off of Constant Contact when they began charging me. I have a Legacy plan with MailChimp, so it has a greater volume of contacts and emails I can send for free than I otherwise would be paying if I signed up now. I had committed to myself to send one newsletter a month this year, but that hasn’t happened since I’m so busy making art, writing my Studio Glimpses, my Naturally Inspired Substack column, plus living life. The images are screenshots of what was in the newsletter. Sometimes I surprise myself when I see all the different things I’m accomplishing. I, like many people, look at the uncompleted items on my To Do List and rarely look at all the things I’ve done. So, putting together this newsletter is helpful for me too.

If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter, click here.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 22, 2026

There are some days you just have to break your routine and celebrate life in a different way. Today was one of those days as Dave and I celebrated our 29^th wedding anniversary. All those years ago we “took the plunge” into marriage at the end of the dock in Northport Harbor. Today we spent the day together and then went out to dinner. Afterward, we took a stroll to visit our dock in celebration. Twenty-nine years and getting better every day!

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 21 2026

Using Art Placer, I created a mock-up of all the walls in the Ceres Gallery based upon the site plan they provided. Of course, the room is rectangular, not one long wall. Then I used Artwork Archives and my Excel spreadsheet to begin “placing” the images of each available painting on the “walls”. The Art Placer app adjusts each image based upon the size dimensions you put into the inventory category. This provided me with a visual approximation of how many pieces and what sizes and colors will work together to make a cohesive display. This type of planning helps me considerably since I am, of course, a visual learner. Now that I have somewhat of an idea of what my space for my November solo exhibition will be, I can be comfortable with the next stage of planning, which is designing and creating the installation piece for which I still don’t have a title, just an idea.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work that was on view in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 20 2026

Today I took the LIRR into the city (that’s what we call Manhattan in our neck of the woods) to help hang the next group show at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea NYC. There are two large rooms with many artworks in very different sizes and styles that needed to be hung in such a way to complement each other. Four of us worked for many hours hanging the work and touching up the walls. After the art was all placed and hung, the lighting had to be carefully redirected to show each piece in the best possible light. Pun intended. For me, one of the treats to the hard work in the gallery is walking back to Penn Station to catch my train home, along the Highline, an elevated park built on a former transportation railway featuring gardens, art, and backed up with stunning views of the NYC Hudson Yards neighborhood. I always gather ideas for potential paintings, native plant selections, and installation projects for exhibitions or for garden design. It was a day of camaraderie with other artists and creative inspirations. I consider that a day well spent

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, on view from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work in the June, 2026 group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

This Week in the Studio – July 13 – July 19, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: Studio Glimpses: Week in Review
July 13–17, 2026
The studio for me is wherever I create, whether standing at my easel, sitting at my desktop, or bending in my garden. My studio took several forms this week — the easel, the desk, my photo archives, and the garden, where I’m always out shooting new reference photos to add to the collection I draw my inspiration from for my artwork. Having just signed the “Cosmic Magnolia” painting, I turned my attention to the purple paph orchid painting, deliberately choosing a lighter and less dense color palette than before. One day was spent reworking the ABOUT pages on my website and Substack column, which had drifted out of sync with the work I’m actually making now. I finally joined a Techspressionism Zoom call after years of curiosity. This is a group of artists from around the world who work in many forms of digital art, something I began doing in the 1980s. I cleared some studio congestion by moving another batch of canvases to my rented climate-controlled storage unit. Then closed the week, starting to source vendors for sheer fabric printing, the material for the meditation space I’m building as part of my solo exhibition at the Ceres Gallery in November, titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos”. Fabric samples should arrive by next week.

Click here to read all the week’s Studio Glimpses

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for three exhibitions. My solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, and my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” in Chelsea, NYC which was on view until July 18, 2026.

My next solo exhibition titled “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” will be at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, November 3 – 28, 2026.

July 18 2026

Today was a research day on my computer, another of my “studio spaces”. I wanted to learn more about the options for getting my own artwork printed on fabric. This is part of the installation I’m working on for my upcoming solo show at the Ceres Gallery in November, titled Centering in the Midst of Chaos. I’m designing a type of meditation space that replicates the calmness offered by an engagement with nature. I am hoping to have my flowers printed on sheer fabric to hang from the frame to enclose the space. A number of different vendors are sending me fabric samples which should come next week. I hope I’ll find something that will work for what I am envisioning.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 17 2026

I bought the shelves at Ikea. The storage unit is at PS Storage.

These are digital prints of paintings I’ve made.
They’re on canvas and gallery wrapped on thick stretchers. Some of them are framed.

A few years ago, I rented a climate-controlled unit in a storage facility near me. I no longer felt it was safe for me to be climbing a ladder to get into the attic to retrieve and replace artwork that was coming and going for exhibitions. I generally try not to climb ladders anymore since the price is too high if I fall. My grandson CJ came over today to help me deliver work to the storage unit and store it. I brought a number of my digital prints on canvas that I’ve painted over the years but no longer have walls available to hang them in my home. With 17 pieces up in the Poughkeepsie show which will be returning in mid-September and the 15 plus large paintings for my upcoming solo show in Chelsea in November, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic. Tonight I can breathe a little bit better since I have more room.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 16, 2026

Visit the Techspressionism website at: https://techspressionism.com

This was me demonstrating the Chyron Chameleon at the Woodbury Cablevision studio in June 1985

I began working with digital graphics in the early 1980s for a company named Chyron. I sold computer graphics devices and electronic paint systems to the broadcast television industry for about a decade. Then I established my own graphic design business focused on that industry since I knew all the small and medium sized companies who needed their sales collateral material branded and designed. Having created my first website in 1995, the year after the internet was introduced, I was able to repurpose my client’s work from print onto the websites I created for them. Since that time, I have gone back and forth between digital and traditional media for creating my art although even my traditional paintings are usually composed in Photoshop. There is always a digital component to my thinking and it’s embedded in my workflow. I have heard about the group Techspressionists for years now but finally took the plunge and joined one of their zoom meetings. It felt great to hear the speakers talk so comfortably about technology. It’s rare that I am able to communicate with artists who use computers to create in such a broad variety of styles. It felt like I was coming home to friends.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 15, 2026

One of the processes I use when I’m considering my next painting is to scroll through the 35,000 close-up photos I’ve taken over the decades to find something that interests me at that day. It might be a flower type I haven’t painted yet or at all. Or it might be a color combination that speaks to me that moment. Bringing the jpeg file into Photoshop, I go through a process of cropping. This helps me to see different ways of possibly incorporating it into a composition. It also helps me to disengage with the fact that it is a photograph of a flower and just concentrate on color and form. These mockups are stored in the cloud accessed by all my computers in a folder titled WIPS (Work In Progress). Growing the plants, taking the photos, documenting thousands of these photos for research and access, selecting one, working on that image in various ways on the computer and storing the versions for reference, are all part of my creative process.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 14, 2026

Today my studio was at my desk. Every once in a while, I need to review what I’ve written on the different places I publish. In rereading my writing, I found that the ABOUT pages on my website and on my Substack column, no longer reflected the work I’m currently doing. So, I spent the day reviewing and rewriting. It doesn’t seem as glamorous as the image of an artist covered in paint, but this is as important for my art as my paintings are. Writing about the intent of what I create and how I do so is critical. There is a school of thought that says, “My art speaks for itself”. I believe that artists who say that about their work use it as an excuse not to write, since writing is hard. Understanding why you create what you do and giving words to it so that others can appreciate the depth of your vision, is a very complex series of skills. Understanding why and writing about it is very hard for many artists. Since I’m fortunate to be left and right brained balanced, I enjoy both efforts, not equally, but enough so I don’t avoid what needs to be done.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 13, 2026

On April 16^th, 2016 I went with Hubby Dave and my grandson CJ to see the orchid show at the New York Botanical Garden. As a member and a graduate of their famous Botanical Illustration program, I feel a special connection to their gardens and conservatory. I’ve personally had no success keeping the Paphiopedilum Orchids alive, so it is always a treat to see these miracles up close. Having just signed my latest painting, the Cosmic Magnolia, I decided to challenge myself with a completely different color palette. I also wanted to paint something that felt lighter and less dense. As with all my paintings, I never repeat myself. I try new colors, different brushes, aspect ratio and size changes, lighting considerations, flatness or depth perception, new medium recipes, and more. It may seem to some who don’t understand what I am doing is that all I do is paint flowers. But instead, with each painting, I push myself to try something new for me. Otherwise, it gets too boring, and I hate being bored.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

This Week in the Studio – July 6 – July 12, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up: The paph orchid painting is nearing completion, with the final stretch spent on subtle glazing and value shifts to balance the composition and push the background back without overworking it. Once signed, I moved into the wiring and documentation process I do for every finished piece, then turned to a fresh challenge: designing a garden-based installation for my November solo show at Ceres Gallery, Centering in the Midst of Chaos. After a greenhouse enclosure proved too large, I found a better-fitting alternative and started reworking its dimensions and fabric design in the studio — a fun departure into three dimensions. I also spent two days in an Akimbo workshop learning to use Claude as a true coworker for long-range project planning, which I’m excited to apply to coordinating the many moving parts of the exhibition. And in the garden, a daylily I’ve waited years to see bloomed for the first time this week.

Click here to read all the week’s Studio Glimpses

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 11, 2026

I find it interesting, after I’ve signed a painting, to look back at the model I used when I was first deciding what flower to paint. There are times when one can see the completed painting and recognize the source. This is not one of those times. Partway through the process of painting day after day, I put the model aside and let the painting decide what it wanted to become. There were many steps and stages and a variety of very different color schemes. But this is the final outcome of what the painting wanted to become after months of work. Getting to the end was quite an interesting journey. I’m happy with the outcome even though I was surprised by the direction it took.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 10, 2026

During the course of painting the paph orchid, certain small details change over time. As I concentrate on various parts of the canvas, some other areas begin to develop in response. The shapes don’t necessarily change, but the focus on their importance might and I make those changes mostly with color. I try warm and cool tones taken from the larger surrounding colors. I work on whether areas want to recede or not, whether they want to be focus. I change these by playing with saturation, the brightness of a color and the value which is the lightness or darkness of that color. Eventually over time, as the entire painting begins to coalesce, the details do as well. They announce themselves to me when I move them in the right direction. Painting for me isn’t a journey where I know the destination point. It is instead an exploration of an untraveled path.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 9, 2026

I had this idea to create an installation for my solo exhibition at the Ceres Gallery in November. The show is titled Centering in the Midst of Chaos and opens on November 3, 2026, which is the midterm election day. I needed an enclosure for the project so looked online and found a small 6’x6’ greenhouse which seemed perfect for my garden based installation. When it arrived, we set it up and realized that it was too big for the space and would overshadow so much of my artwork that will be hanging on the four walls, so back it went. Looking some more, I found these curtained enclosures for trying on clothes in a temporary setting. It arrived, and once it stopped raining here, we put it together in the garage this afternoon. The size seems like it will work with some modifications, so I brought the frame upstairs to my studio, where I can work on the dimensions and fabric design. I’m really enjoying expanding my thinking beyond two dimensions for a bit of time. The ideas keep percolating in my head. What fun!

I almost kept this cute little greenhouse for my own use in propagating but decided I’m too busy at the moment to take on another project so back it went.

I found this little dressing room online and thought the size might work for my installation project. With modifications this might be just what I need.

The frame for the dressing room, now renamed, the installation, is lightweight and very easy to put together. Since it’s freestanding, I won’t have to disturb the walls in the gallery, which is a big plus in my estimation.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 8, 2026

I’ve been taking a workshop on how to use the AI tool Claude as a coworker, rather than just as an entity that helps to edit and correct my writing. I learned so much in the two-day workshop even though I thought it was just eating up my time that would be better used in the studio. What I found instead, is that, connecting Claude to the other apps I use to manage my time and projects can help me to do long range planning. I want to have it help me schedule all the many parts of the projects I’m working on for my November solo exhibition at the Ceres Gallery. Since I’m not only showing my paintings but doing an installation as well, there are many parts that need to be considered. I also have a long timeline to create audio and video files that will be needed for this multimedia exhibition and for my Bloomberg Connects listing. Using Claude in a more sophisticated way will help me stay organized and on time. It’s like working with a virtual assistant. The workshop was offered by Akimbo. I’ve taken many of their programs over the years and I highly recommend them.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 7, 2026

Once I am done working on a painting and it’s signed, I then wire it for hanging. I also document the piece with the date of completion, since that’s a number that will never be reused for another work. For the placement of the wiring, I measure 1/3 of the piece’s height down and mark the stretcher. I drill a small hole in the wood and then change the tip of the drill and screw in the D-hooks. From a big reel of covered wire, I thread it through the D-hooks & pull it tightly to the opposing ends of the stretchers. I also write the Index #, the title of the work, medium, and put © and my name and signature along the bottom stretcher. I do this for all my paintings. This info, along with photos, is added to my Artwork Archive account in the cloud and also to the Excel spreadsheet I maintain locally. When you’ve been creating work for decades, you need to stay organized for many reasons.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 6, 2026

Back at the easel after the holiday and making incremental changes as I believe that I’m moving towards a completion of the paph orchid painting. I pushed back the lower background using glazing of a transparent ultramarine blue to cover the Phalo Turquoise. Now I just have to balance the left bottom with the right. I also pushed back the center labellum and created more depth. The changes become more subtle as I near the end. It’s a critical time since I don’t want to overwork it but make slight tweaks to enhance the painting.

On another note, The adorable daylily opened. She’s been planted in my garden for a few years and this is the first time she’s strutting her stuff. I’m so happy!

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

This Week in the Studio – June 29-July 5, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up:

The week opened with a Substack post I published, “My Flowers Are…,” a list poem built around a repeated refrain, tracing the ground from botanical symbol to feminist manifesto. From there came days of balancing botanical accuracy against abstraction on the purple paph orchid on my easel, a pull between my love for intense color energy and years of close botanical study. One day was given over to an Akimbo workshop on setting up Claude as a co-worker, followed by five hours of learning a new video editing program to edit the Ceres Gallery opening footage I took on the day of the opening reception. Heat in the upper 90s kept garden work off the table but not garden pleasure. Daylilies began opening, each bloom living just a day and teaching a lesson on the ephemerality of life. Studio time each afternoon on the orchid continued moving the painting forward. A short lesson in hosta maintenance & architecture was posted since I’m always fascinated by how nature evolves with purpose. The week closed with a rescheduled barbecue for the holiday (heat and humidity won out), freeing up studio time to push into edge treatments on the orchid painting hard, soft, and merged. Enjoying a daily garden walk among the daylilies in pinks, corals, purples, light yellows, and white was, as always, inspirational.

Click here to read all the week’s Studio Glimpses

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 4, 2026

Since the temperatures were in the high 90s with accompanying high humidity, my decided to reschedule his barbecue gathering until tomorrow. This left me with time to paint and stay in the air conditioning. The Paph orchid is coming along and I’m starting to work on some details at this point. Edges make a big difference. Hard edge? Soft edge? Merged colors edge? Each of these treatments make for completely different paintings. On this painting I’m either doing soft edges or merged color edges. The types of brushes I use makes a big difference in the look of the color merging.

I also spent some time walking through my garden and admiring the daylilies that are in bloom. I have some stray orange ones, but I usually transplant them outside of the deer fence and out of my line of sight. Orange doesn’t play a big part in my garden. Pinks, corals, purples, light yellows and white predominate.

I went to heavy on the Thalo on the bottom background. Have to wait until it dries to tone it down.

Midnight Orchid Daylily growning in my front garden.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 3, 2026

I put in some good studio time today on the Paph Orchid. There are some days you are there in the studio working and nothing seems to be going right, nothing has moved the painting nearer to the day you sign it. There are other days, when you put in the same amount of time and you’ve leapt forward towards a vision. Today was one of those days.

On another note, I wanted to mention something about my large Hostas. If you look closely at the center there is an accumulation of garden debris in the center of the large leaf. If you don’t help the plant, and clean that channel you might have a problem. The architecture of this leaf allows the rain to roll towards the center and flow down into a channel on the stem, thereby delivering the water to the base of the plant and the root system. With the opening to the leaf channel clogged with debris, the water doesn’t follow this path, and the plant doesn’t benefit from the adaptations it has developed towards survival. I find it personally very satisfying to help the Hostas breathe and survive.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 2, 2026

After spending over 8 hours at my computer yesterday, I was frazzled and still exceedingly tired today. Though at temps in the upper 90s, it was too hot to work in the garden, it wasn’t too hot to enjoy it. The plants I overwintered in my plant room are starting to come into their own on the deck. As an added bonus, the daylilies are beginning to bloom. As their name implies, each of these magnificent examples of floral architecture only lives for one day. So much energy is put in by the plant to enable all this to happen for just one day. Thankfully for us, there are many buds on each plant, so some might not even notice that each day a new flower opens, gets fertilized by the pollinators, and then dies. Each morning, I walk into the garden to remove the dead blossoms so I can enjoy the new ones for the day.

Just about all these plants were overwintered either in my converted dark room which is now a plant room or in my living room enjoying southern light.

I have a collection of daylilies in colors that make my heart sing. Some of them still have tags on them so I can ID them but this beauty has lost her name. Imagine all the work to create this flower only lasts for one day. Nature is amazing and teaches us so much about birth, growth, senescence, death, and rebirth if we only pay attention.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

July 1, 2026

Today was not a Studio day. I started off with a workshop, sponsored by Akimbo, to set up the Claude ai as a Co-Worker which is a higher level of working with the app. It’s more efficient since you are setting up the preferences and other settings to work within your style of presentation and workflow. What we learn at the end of the two sessions is the beginning of using Claude, not just to answer questions like you’d find on Wikipedia or elsewhere, it can set, with the right input, set up scheduling and repeatable tasks to make for more efficiency. Following that workshop, I spent the next 5 hours editing the videos I’d taken at the Ceres Gallery Opening Reception. They’re not online yet but I’ll post a link once they are available. I’m beginning to get the hang of CapCut and it far exceeds the capability of iMovie which I’ve used for years. Hey Apple, you better catch up.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

June 30, 2026

I walking a balancing act at this point of the painting. I’m trying to be botanically accurate on the one hand and abstract enough on the other. I’m inspired by the energy and color shifts in the images from NAWA, even though I imagine the color is an artifact of the translation of recorded vision. But I’m also drawn to the years spend up close with flowers and also the intense study of their details in working in botanical illustration. Merging these two interests is where the tightrope is for me. And where it is most interesting as well.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

June 29, 2026

I wrote an article for my Substack column, Naturally Inspired, which I forgot to mention here.

My Flowers Are… is a list poem and a quiet manifesto — a piece that begins with the familiar and arrives somewhere unexpected. Starting with art and symbol, the language moves through voice and body, through evolution and freedom, before landing on the boldest claim of all: that these flowers, painted from life and rooted in a garden, are not ephemeral. They persist. The repeated opening — my flowers are — works like a drumbeat, steady and insistent, letting each new idea land with equal weight. By the time the poem reaches its feminist center — woman, female, seductress — and then its paradox — silent and yet projecting loudly — the accumulation has done its work. What reads as a flower painting turns out to be an argument about art, about voice, about what outlasts the bloom.

Read the article now on my Substack column, Naturally Inspired.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

This Week in the Studio – June 22-28, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up:

A full week, anchored by two trips into the city for the Ceres Gallery group show, Raising Women’s Voices — first to hang it, then to celebrate it at Thursday’s opening reception, where rich conversations with visitors made the long commute more than worthwhile. Back in the studio, a new orchid painting is underway: composition mapped digitally, grid transferred to canvas with pastel, and the first thin washes of oil paint now in place. A small detour with a Mr. Clean eraser solved a pastel-too-dark mishap. Meanwhile, the eternal tightrope between botanical accuracy and abstraction remains the defining creative tension. Off the canvas, a switch from iMovie to CapCut opens new possibilities for quiet, vertical video — a natural fit for the Take a Minute series on YouTube.

Click here to read all the week’s Studio Glimpses

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

June 27, 2026

Once I block in the outline of the drawing of a new oil painting, I then reshape the entire piece to conform to my knowledge of how the flower actually looks in nature. It’s a tightrope walk between my background in botanical illustration and my desire to incorporate abstraction intertwined with the flower. My tendency is always to go for complete accuracy but my artistic side pushes back demanding a different vision. Each painting lands on one side or another of this vision.

On my deck in the morning, the sun catches the brilliance of the Cordyline fruticosa, otherwise called a Ti plant. These changing colors throughout the day always make my heart sing.

To the left of the Cordyline is the squirrel proof bird feeder which gives me endless pleasure watching the feasting and singing of the birds in my garden. The only downside is the chipmunks who also enjoy emptying the feeder since they don’t weigh enough to bring down the metal grid which closes the seed access windows.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition, “Portraits From My Garden” at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show, “Hearing Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition titled, “Centering in the Midst of Chaos” in Chelsea, New York City

June 26, 2026

I shoot a lot of video and decided that I needed to work with a different editor than iMovie, which I’ve been using for years. That program can’t cleanly and successfully produce vertical videos, since it’s standardized on the horizontal aspect ratio, which doesn’t work for streaming & reels on social media. I downloaded CapCut and spent the day watching online tutorials. There are so many more features that I’ll probably never use since I’m not interested in doing bouncy TikTok style work. Quiet and serene is more my speed. I have a playlist on my YouTube Channel titled, Take a Minute Videos. These are, of course, one-minute videos. They offer to you the opportunity to calmly look closely at either something in nature or a painting up close. I find that we are living in a much more frantic world than I grew up in where I had many hours to spend looking at clouds floating like cotton candy, gently across the sky or the intricacies of the structure and texture of a leaf and how it differs from front to back. That slower time gave me an appreciation for minute details that I feel so many people no longer take the time observe in our hyped-up, fast-moving, frenetic culture. My videos offer an opportunity to just “Take a Minute” to slow down and relax.

Early in the morning, the oscilating sprinkler, set on a timer, went on automatically. Sitting having my coffee and looking out at the sunshine streaming through the droplets of water was mesmerizing. I had to tear myself away from the calmness I was experiencing in order to capture this video to share. Nothing however can compare with the original. I urge you to look around where you are and see what absorbs your visual interest.. I’m sure you’ll find something unexpected.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 25, 2026

Tonight was the Opening Reception of the group show, “Raising Women’s Voices” at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea, NY. I went into the city, that’s what Long Islanders call Manhattan, and then walked along the Highline to the gallery. Getting there earlier than the beginning of the reception was my goal since I wanted to take video of all the artists’ work. I made it in time and then stayed for the actual reception, which was from 6-8 pm. We had a steady flow of visitors, most of whom were very interested in speaking with the artists who were there. I was asked by a few of the visitors what the thematic thread was to my work and the philosophical underpinnings. Some were probably artists themselves and asked specific questions about process. It was an amazing evening engaging with an audience that was able to have higher-level conversations about art. This makes all the efforts we artists put into our work so very worthwhile. The door-to-door round trip to the gallery and home is between 4 ½ and five hours for me, depending on traffic and catching the right train.

My Cosmic Phalaenopsis oil painting was on view along with the work of the other gallery artists. It’s so great to be showing in a gallery in Chelsea, the heart of the art scene in NYC. A fifty-year dream come true.

So many people were spending time looking and talking about the art. It was so uplifting.

Walking along the Highline back to Penn Station for the trip home was such a welcome, relaxing mix of nature and New York City.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 24, 2026

I began blocking in the Paph orchid with thin washes of oil paint, thinned with 50/50% galkyd/gamsol. Because I had drawn the outlines with a fairly dark purple pastel, the medium didn’t completely erase the line so I used a Mr. Clean magic eraser dipped in gamsol. That did the trick quickly. Next time I’ll use a much lighter pastel but this time I wanted to make it darker so it would photograph more clearly. I won’t do that again since it took precious time away from actually painting. There’s always something new crossing your path no matter how many years you’ve been doing something. That’s so interesting in my opinion.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 23, 2026

I always start my paintings in a somewhat traditional way, but with a touch of technology. I use my computer and photoshop to help me with the initial composition choices rather than doing thumbnail drawings or other hand techniques. Since I’ve worked on computer graphics since 1984, I’m very comfortable, actually, more than comfortable working online. Once I have the composition I plan to start with, I import the work from my desktop Mac to my iPad Pro and then into the Procreate app. I make a grid superimposed over the composition, a feature built into Procreate, that I then mimic those lines on the canvas using pastels. Looking at the grid and referencing the subject on the screen, I draw the outline of the flower on the canvas. Skip the digital part and you have an historic grid method of upscaling. It feels good to work in these classic procedures, even if now they come with a modern twist.

I import the composition I created in Photoshop into Procreate on my iPad. There I use the drawing guides to make a grid which I use to upscale the image onto canvas.

I replicate the grid I’ve created in Procreate on my iPad using pastel. and a T-square.

Using pastel, I use the Procreate grid on my iPad to sketch in the outline of the composition as a way to get started with my painting.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 22, 2026

This is the week we open our annual group show, Raising Women’s Voices at the Ceres Gallery in Chelsea NY. I took the Long Island Railroad into Penn Station and then walked to the gallery along the Highline. A group of us hung the show in a few hours since we all know our particular roles. Group shows are notoriously difficult to hang since you have to consider a variety of aspects when deciding placement, it’s not something you can plan for in advance. You think in terms of color, size, scale, and subject matter in order to determine the best placement so each of the works is shown to its best advantage. I don’t generally like to make those decisions, I’d rather be the person with the hammer and nails. I was too busy unfortunately to take photos at the install, but here are some snippets of the show.

The lighting hadn’t been finalized when I took this photo. My Cosmic Phalaenopsis is in the corner on the left wall.

This is a clip of details of all the works in the Ceres Gallery annual group show.

Raising Women’s Voices is the title or our Annual Group Show at Ceres Gallery.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in from June 23. to July 18, 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

This Week in the Studio – June 15-21, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up:

The magnolia is signed — abandoned, as I prefer to say, because a painting is never truly finished. While I was still working on it though, I grabbed a quick studio video, painting clothes and all, it was impromptu and completely unplanned. I sometimes rotate the canvas to get a comfortable angle for the edges, and you can see that on the video on my YouTube Channel. Now the next canvas is picked, the flower is being chosen, and I’m deep in my photo archive and Photoshop — chugging on all cylinders with the excitement of starting a new painting. And over at Sanctuary Magazine, Myrna Haskell wrote beautifully about the Locust Grove show. A good week.

Click here to read all the week’s Studio Glimpses

This is a daily journal of my creative efforts as I prepared for my June-September 2026 solo exhibition at the Locust Grove Historical Site in Poughkeepsie, NY, and my November Solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.

June 20, 2026

Today I published my latest article on my Substack column, Naturally Inspired. The article is titled, “My Flowers Are …” It is a series of sentences conveying the entire scope of where my flowers started, how they evolved into paintings, and then, how they involved into ideas. Since you are here reading what’s on my website, you’ll also like what I wrote there so go take a look.

Here’s the link: Mary Ahern-My Flowers Are

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 19, 2026

Now that I’ve picked and prepped the canvas, I’m trying to decide what flower I want to paint next time. I’ve decided on an orchid, so I started to go through my thousands of closeup photos of all types of orchids. Once I pick which one I want to spend my precious time on, I’ll match it up with some inspirational images I have from the NAWA Astrology of the Day website. At this stage, all my work is on my computer using an image database and Photoshop for analysis. This stage is very creative since I have so many sources to choose from and my mind sails into the endless possibilities. Here is a perfect blending of my lifelong time as a gardener with a degree in Horticulture, my 45 years in digital imaging, my studio practice since the 1970s and my degree in fine arts. At this point I’m chugging on all cylinders with the excitement of starting a new painting.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 18, 2026

Today I am trying to decide what size painting I will do next. I have 24×24”, 30×30”, and 36×36’ canvases available in my studio so I can choose small, medium or large. Also, I painted the edges of the Magnolia painting. I always get 1 ½” thick stretchers for my canvases since that makes the painting sturdier and more substantial. I don’t frame the work since every collector adds their own style of framing that will work well in their own location. Frames are a very personal decision. Wood or metal? What type of wood or metal? Modern and sleek or historic and ornate. Over the decades, I’ve learned how very important it is for people to pick out a frame that will enhance the art but also not clash with the other art hanging on their walls. Not supplying frames without the input of the collector is something that continues to work in our favor.

As one painting is waiting to dry, a new fresh canvas is on the easel waiting to see what it will become.

I paint the edges of the canvas with the same technique as most of the painting. It’s a way for me to show my process of glazing and layering.

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 17, 2026

I took a video in my studio while I was painting the Magnolia. Too funny, I didn’t realize my painting clothes were going to look so good. It wasn’t planned. Since I’m a right-handed painter, I sometimes have to turn my paintings in order to get a comfortable angle for painting edges. If I don’t do that, I lose control of the precision.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/maryahernartist

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 16, 2026

There is no “completion” of a painting for me. By making smaller and smaller incremental changes, I begin to realize that I’m experiencing an asymptote. If a person walks halfway across a room each day, when will he reach the other side? They won’t. Just because the increments are smaller, it doesn’t mean they can reach the other side if they can only go halfway. Instead of saying I’ve finished it, I call this abandoning a painting. There are times I go back sometime later, and that might include years later, to work on the piece again. But right now, I’m spending many hours and making little gain so I’m ready to think about signing this magnolia and beginning my next one.

In my garden I plant very few plants with prickly edges. I want soft, friendly plants instead. But this Mahonia japonica ‘Bealei’ was a gift from my professor, Dr. Richard Iverson when I was studying horticulture for my degree decades ago. This plant blooms with yellow flowers in late winter and once fertilized they turn into these luscious berries. Once day this summer, the birds will all agree that the berries have ripened with there will be a cacophony of birds singing and enjoying their feast. One year I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon sitting on the bench in the garden in the midst of the celebration. It was an unforgettable memory!

I began this daily journal in February, 2026 as I prepared for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work for the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June 2026, and my upcoming November 2026, solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City

June 15, 2026

My solo exhibition, in Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie had an opening reception last weekend. That reception was attended by Myrna Haskell, Founder and Executive Editor of Sanctuary Magazine. In this month’s edition of Sanctuary, Myrna featured a column titled, Event Hop. She wrote about one of the pieces in the exhibition that drew her eye repeatedly. This is what she wrote:

“I attended the opening reception for Mary Ahern’s solo exhibition at Locust Grove Historic Site titled “Portraits From My Garden.” I hadn’t viewed so many of Mary’s works together in one space before, and it was a delight. The vibrant colors and attention to light and texture drew me in.

I asked Mary about her piece ‘We Are Sisters.’ She shares, ‘All of my works tell a story. This painting is about two sisters, and it demonstrates how one outshines the other. An inspiration was Bette Midler’s song ‘Wind Beneath My Wings.’ Who is the vocal one? Who shies away from attention? You’ll notice that the warmer reds are used in the flower in the foreground, while the other is slightly faded.’

Click here to read the entire article on the free online Sanctuary Magazine, Event Hop

This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.

This Week in the Studio – June 8-14, 2026

Weekly Wrap-Up:

After the whirlwind of the Locust Grove opening, this week was about finding my way back to the rhythms that sustain me. Time in the studio, time in the garden, and time with the ideas that feed both. The magnolia painting took another significant turn. I overpainted much of the blue cloud sky, and the effect was immediate — the petals unified, the harsh edges softened, the color transitions gentled into something warmer. Now the painting feels like it’s telling me what it wants to become rather than resisting me, and I’m genuinely excited to follow it there this coming week.

A quieter joy this week: discovering my name in the Acknowledgements of Seth Godin’s This Is Strategy. I’ve studied Seth’s work for decades taking his workshops and reading his books. To have contributed in some small way to this one is an honor I didn’t see coming.

The garden is at peak privacy right now. The massive Rhododendron roseums are in full, exuberant bloom all along the property edges. I moved so many of them over the years and I think by now they’ve finally landed exactly where they belong.

Also, this week: a reminder that good tools deserve good care. In my brush-cleaning ritual after each day of painting I use Gamsol, Murphy’s Oil Soap, Master’s Brush Cleaner along with quite a bit of scrubbing keeps brushes I’ve owned for decades still performing beautifully. You take care of your tools, and they take care of you.

Click here to read all the week’s Studio Glimpses

This is a daily journal of my creative efforts as I prepared for my June-September 2026 solo exhibition at the Locust Grove Historical Site in Poughkeepsie, NY, and my November Solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.

June 13, 2026

I did another big transition in the direction for the magnolia painting. I overpainted most of the blue cloud sky. I think this unified the petals of the flower better. I was bothered by the harsh edges and color transitions. Now that I’ve softened all of the I’m liking what this painting is trying to become. I like the warm glows of the color range. I can’t wait to see what the painting is trying to say this week in the studio.

In the garden the huge Rhododendron roseums are in full bloom. They edge so much of the property, shielding the garden from the street and providing privacy. Over the years, I’ve moved so many of them into different places in the garden. I wouldn’t have the strength anymore to dig them up, drag them, and replant them, but I think they are by now just where they should be.

This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.

June 12, 2026

I have been reading, taking lessons from, and expanding my interest and enjoyment of the creative act of marketing for decades. For years, I’ve studied the work of Seth Godin. He is my marketing guru. I own almost all of Seth Godin’s books, but I also listen to them as audiobooks, many of which I get from my local library. He calls books souvenirs of ideas. I have a bookshelf full of his ideas. I even went so far as to order 10 copies of one of his latest entries in this genre, “This Is Strategy,” and distribute them to a team I was working with at the time, hoping they would embrace the concepts. It takes an open mind to new ideas and to make leaps forward in planning. Marketing is as creative an act as is drawing or painting in my opinion. Imagine my joy in seeing my name listed in the Acknowledgments at the end of this book. I am truly honored to have had some input into trialing and contributing to the ideas behind this book of Seth’s!

Seth has helped me to focus my efforts in areas as diverse as the entreprenurial graphic design business I founded and ran for years. Also the efforts and direction I decided to focus upon in my art. He’s helped me to think about how I spend my time, where I put my efforts for the maximum benefit to others and to myself. I could go on, but let me just say that he’s changed and enriched my life for the better in the past, the present and even into the future. I couldn’t have asked for a better guru.

This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.

June 11, 2026

An important thing I do every day is to clean my brushes properly. You have to take care of your tools and they take care of you, so they say. (Whoever THEY are) First I clean them in Gamsol which is a solvent. Then in the utility sink, I poke them into a container with Murphy’s oil soap, scrape them on the plastic scrubber in the sink, do it again on the smaller scrubber, then dip them again and rub them into the palm of my hand to insure that no pigment is still coming off the bristles, then rub them in Master’s soap and rinse in clean water. Lay them on paper towels to dry. Some of my brushes I’ve had for decades because I take good care of them. They deserve the attention.

I like the ritual of cleaning my brushes. Caring for them, feels like a Thank You to them for their part in helping me to make art.

This closeup of the flowers on my *Kalmia latifolia,* AKA, Mountain Laurel shows the interior architecture of the how the flowers seduce assistance in fertilization. The center color markings indicate to the pollinator where to go inside the flower to find what they’re looking for. When it does, the stamens pop like a spring and spray them with pollen. This is then deposited on the next flowers they visit. Nature is endlessly fascinating isn’t it!

This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.

June 10, 2026

This week, I’m getting back in the studio a bit after prepping the artwork for the Locust Grove solo exhibition, bubble wrapping them, loading them into the car, and then driving a 5-hour round trip last week was tiring. But this week, prepping 50 prints in different sizes and 100 note cards for their gift shop, then driving back again to Poughkeepsie, staying overnight, setting up for the Opening Reception on Sunday, talking to people for hours about my work, and then driving back to Long Island, was a different kind of tired. Now that the planning and producing the Locust Grove solo exhibition is behind me, I’m trying to return to my normal life rhythm. I spent a few hours in the studio working on the magnolia painting and letting it travel to what it wants to become. I also found that spending time looking at my garden helped settle me down considerably. I hope to get my groove back soon.

I’m letting this magnolia painting experiment with what it ultimately wants to be. I don’t think she’s made her mind up yet.

This is the view from the balcony outside my studio. I’ve been working and designing and redesigning this garden since 1989. I have almost no all day sun and with the loss of about 7 large oaks since Hurricane Sandy, I now have dappled, rather than dense shade.

This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.

June 9, 2026

The Locust Grove show opened yesterday. These two oil paintings are at the entrance to the exhibition. On the left is “Pay Attention Here – Orange Hibiscus and on the other wall is, “Worth the Wait – Tree Peony”. Both are oil paintings.

Off my studio is a balcony and looking down from there I can see the magnificent plants now blooming in the garden. From a distance, you don’t get the scale of how large these shrubs are but I think they make an interesting mosaic. The Kalmia latifolia, are the white flowers, Rhododendron rosebay are the pink shrubs, and the purple shrub is Calycanthus x. Aphrodite which I planted over a decade ago. All these flowering shrubs provide privacy from the road.

This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.

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