This year marks the seventh installment of the “Leftovers and Palette Gremlins” gallery project.  While I started posting these small works back in 2016, the truth is I’ve been channeling this type of accidental inspiration for years. 

No matter what larger projects I happen to be working on, I can’t seem to turn off my brain. I’ll be moving through the studio when a shape seen from the corner of my eye suddenly pops into my head and demands expression. Frequently what I “see” is an alien or a face and that gives rise to spaceships, landscapes, and other flights of imagination. When this creative spark leads to a new and unplanned work, it feels like a gift.

I hope to follow the same routine as the past few years adding new oddities and inspirations here throughout the year. If you’d like to follow along with the project on social media, I’ll be posting the images on Twitter and Instagram. My intention is to make the originals available for sale in our shop right away whenever possible. Expect that on the first Wednesday of the month at 11am EST starting on March 1st.

As always, thanks for checking out what I’ve been up to!

Leftovers are spur-of-the-moment doodles or sketches created with paint left over from a work in progress. (Ever since my poor art student days, I’ve been loathe to discard any usable paint or other art materials!) Many of these quickies end up in the trash, but some give rise to an idea that merits development into a full sized painting.

Palette Gremlins are small creations inspired by random or accidental shapes in my immediate environment. Usually these gremlins are found on a used palette, but nearly as often they spring from an unintentional mark of paint on a piece of paper or a suggestive shadow in my studio.

For more detail on how this project originated, head over the original Leftovers & Palette Gremlins gallery. And be sure to check out the 2017 gallery, 2018 gallery, 2019 gallery, 2021 gallery, and 2022 gallery as well.