What Happens in the Studio Between Commissions

People often ask what an artist does when they're not working on a commission or preparing for a show. The answer is simple: the best work.

The Space Between

Commissioned work comes with expectations: a size, a palette, a vision from someone else. That's a beautiful collaboration. But the work made in the gaps between commissions is pure exploration. No brief, no deadline, no compromise.

Experimentation Drives Everything

The studio between projects is a laboratory. New materials get tested. Techniques get pushed to failure. Colors get combined in ways that might not work, and sometimes, the failures lead to breakthroughs that define the next series.

Happy Accidents

Some of the most compelling pieces emerge from accidents. A spilled jar of medium, an unexpected chemical reaction between paints, a surface that cracks in an interesting way. The studio is set up to let these accidents happen and to capture them when they do.

Building a Body of Work

Every piece made in the studio, whether it ends up for sale or not, feeds into the larger body of work. Ideas thread through paintings made months apart. A color discovered in one experiment becomes the foundation for an entire series.

The Rhythm of Making

There's a rhythm to studio life that outsiders rarely see. Hours of setup, material prep, and contemplation. Bursts of intense painting. Long stretches of looking. The creative process isn't a straight line: it spirals, backtracks, and occasionally leaps forward.