Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Palette Knife Painting

Spring Blossoms, Oil 8" X 10"

I have been working hard on a detailed painting of the Merrimack River under the bridge in Manchester, NH. So I gave myself a break and took out a sheet of canvas paper, taped it to a board and just played with a few oil colors and a palette knife.  I had seen a video as an example, but used my own image as an inspiration (crabapple blossoms in the spring).  I thought about using a more oriental style for this, simplifying my photo, just keeping the basics.  I used four colors only, titanium white, burnt umber, cadmium yellow and alizarin crimson. This was really fun and I can understand why people are attracted to palette knife painting. It does use up much more paint than a brush. Next time I'll try it with acrylic paint and see if I like that as much.

I liked my initial study of "By the Bridge", 8" x 10" on board and decided to make a 16" X 20" on canvas as well.  I painted these from one of my photos that I took recently (on a very cold day, but very little snow around.)  The image is for a proposal for my art group, Friends of Art Manchester. We will be doing a project for Webster House in Manchester during the winter. You can see the proposals that were submitted on their website.

By the Bridge study, acrylic, 8" X 10"
This is my initial study with acrylic paints. I think I might play with it some more using the oil paints now.

By the Bridge, acrylic, 16" X 20", WIP

I am almost done with this one now.  Every time I look at it, I see a few more details I need to fix. That is why I enjoyed painting the blossoms - no details!  I actually like doing both kinds of paintings, with details and without. I find it much more enjoyable when I don't have to worry about straight lines and perspective. But I do enjoy the final product when I have worked my way through all the issues.

I have signed up for an oil painting class at New Hampshire Institute of Art.   It is a continuing education class in the evening.  I have taken classes there in the past and I hope this one will help me with my struggles learning how to paint with oil paints.  There's always something new to learn with art.

1 comment:

owais said...

Thanks for this nice article. Keep it up. :)