Scraping off last year’s paint. As usual, my palette when I’m done painting is five times more interesting to me than any of the work I’ve made, because the reality is not slumping wetly up against indistinct and unreasonable expectation.

As most painters will tell you, it is rather galling to spend weeks on a series of paintings only to start cleaning up and find that your filthy, paint-encrusted palette is at least as beautiful as anything you’ve managed to commit to (or against) canvas.