Painting every day is a great way to discover both strengths and weaknesses. There is always more to learn. When paintings aren’t coming out like I imagine they should they take on a life of their own. While painting the 90 paintings in 90 days series, this wretched clam shell frustrated me to despair. I used a palette knife to scrape my third messy attempt off the canvas, fully intending to start over. What appeared, the ghost of former efforts, looked surprisingly interesting. Vertical lines appeared because I scraped the paint off the canvas on a piece of corrugated cardboard, adding unexpected texture. I let it dry and called it a day, one big, fat happy accident.

When it came time to exhibit all 90 paintings that were in this series, this was the first one to sell. The architect who bought it said it was the best piece in the series. Maybe he was right, but I didn’t mention it was an accident. It was original though; I have never painted anything else with the same desperation.