Pale yellow to dark red-orange, vibrant pink to muddy purple. We are told you shouldn’t use paint straight from the tube but does it count if past colors already fill the brush?

My paintbrush goes from the palette to the canvas, back and forth, back and forth. As the color evolves, the painting evolves: I jump from place to place on my painting, a little butterfly flitting from flower to flower deciding which to pick. There is always somewhere to put the color, even if it’s not where I was originally expecting it to go. My apron is covered in paint, each splotch and smear tells a similar story of a past painting session. The next thing I know: the side of my hand is in it and I have to redo the spot. The only consistency in my painting sessions is the desire to grab more paint. My painting process can be best described as organized chaos. I go into studio time with an open mind not knowing exactly what I will work on, canvases are stacked on my lowest shelf, some primed, and some not. They are just sitting there, waiting for me to find the right thing to paint. Here, I feel like I can breathe, I am calm. I organize this chaos into something: I create contrast between the detailed depth of reality and the flattened blocks of color.