If you are painter who uses only a palette knife, then my question is a mute one for you. However, for the majority of us, the palette knife is used as an accessory to our brushes. Myself, I split my brush and knife time about 50-50. My favorite use of the palette knife is mixing my colors because it keeps my colors clean.
In the spirit of experimentation and “Painting Outside of the Box,” as discussed in an earlier blog post, I decided to paint an entire painting with just a palette knife – no cheating allowed – using thick globs of paint. In addition, I chose a subject that I haven’t painted in years – a bouquet of flowers. Because I do like to push my comfort zone, I chose to have two challenges for this exercise.
Inspired by a friend’s bouquet of flowers from her garden….
…I began slapping painting around. Since I had never painted flowers with a palette knife, it felt awkward and I also wasn’t real confident of my strategy. For example, do I start with the background or the flowers or go back and forth? Indecision led me to do the latter as you can see below.
By the way, the two words that kept running through my head while painting were “joy” and “abundance.” I wanted that feeling to show up in this floral painting.
I was pleasantly surprised with the results that you see above. Despite the temptation, on several occasions, I did not use a brush. However, because the surface of this 20×20 panel was highly textured with gesso, I did need to use my pinky to smudge in color where the paint just wouldn’t fill in the crevices and left white specks.
After a couple of days of studying the painting, I realized that the middle left section of the bouquet proved that I am right handed! Notice how all of the leaves are going in one direction from right to left. LOL! I had to laugh. And, the leaves were too close in size and shape. Sigh….
Also, I needed to beef up my darks in the area where the flowers bunch together, to help keep the bouquet feel cohesive. The dark purple flower on the left was too dark, so I decreased the value of it and increased the values in the background around it.
It was a delight to discover that I can still paint flowers, as well as with a palette knife. One of my favorite parts of painting them, was combining several related colors within a flower. With the palette knife I could pick up 2-3 colors in one swoop. Here is an up close view.
Notice the variety of reds in the rose and yellows in the lily.
The finished 20×20 on panel oil painting is below. It’s title is “Abundance of Joy.”
How did I do for the first time out of the gate? Are you ready to try a new painting technique? I highly recommend it.
One final note: I doubt that I will become a floral painter. However, I do believe this exploration will benefit my current need to push my development as a painter. I am not sure what my next challenge will be. Perhaps a portrait, since I have never painted one before. What do you think/recommend?
If you would like to learn more about my approach to mixing color, visit my online color course available via Craftsy.com.
As always, if you enjoyed this blog, please share it.
Carol I love reading your post but unfortunately your new background prohibits me from seeing the text! Please change back to the way it was. Thanks!
Leada; I haven’t changed anything. What are you referring to? This is disconcerting. I am wondering if WordPress changed something.
When I look at my blog page, it looks the same. Hmmmm. Not sure what to do…? Thanks for letting me know.
Nice work Carol,
That is amazing for first time Palette knife painting.
PS
Almost every Palette Knife artists that I have read blogs from
use a brush to do touchup so you might be to hard on yourself.
Thank you for sharing.
Jeff
Carol,
I, too, blogged about the joys of knife painting several months ago. I was suggesting that we start a beginner with the knife, rather than brushes, to avoid the tendency to fiddle that is so easy to get into. It would also teach the “let the knife mix it” approach to using varied colour in an area, be they close or quite different. The small class that I have has begun to knife paint with the left-overs on the palette at the end of each session. They have created some lovely messes–and several great abstracts ! It is a fun way to close things for the day, and not put the paint in the trash, either.
Knife work is so liberating ! It is the only way I can paint realistic clouds, and like you, I really enjoy the loose mixes of colours that one gets with the knife. And texture, too ! I recently painted a triptych of a west coast England scene (“Moorings”) where only the rigging and the birds were painted with a tiny brush. As a miniaturist most of the time, this was a huge painting for me (2 side panels at 16 x 20 inches with a vertical 12 x 24 inch in the middle) and it astounded my group when I put it in our Spring Show. (I still am !)
There are several knife paintings on my website, JudithMartinezArt.com. I have begun putting such information in the titles for simplicity, too.
Hi Jeff; thanks for the words of encouragement. Oh, I figured that palette knife painters used a brush for touch-ups. I just wanted the challenge of keeping it “pure.” 🙂 Carol
Hi Judith;
That’s a lovely idea — having kids start with a palette knife. I can imagine it getting a little messy! LOL! Several years ago, I hid all of my brushes for a few months and just used a palette knife for landscapes I was doing at the time. It was the best way to learn about the knife.
I enjoyed looking through your paintings. And good for you for pushing your comfort zone and painting larger. 🙂
Carol
Thanks, Carol !
I appreciate your time and comments.
Judi
Thanks for sharing your beautiful painting. Looks very intricate for being the first time using a knife. I started out small, with a 4″ x 4″ canvas, and was quite pleased with how my flower and leaves turned out. I can’t imagine doing a large painting with a knife, but maybe some day I’ll give it a try!.
Debbie Viola
http://www.debbieviola.com/blog
Hi Debbie,
You are quite welcome. By the way, you might find it easier to work with the palette knife on a larger surface. 4×4 is quite small and I think it would be a tad confining with a knife. Try a 12×12 or larger….you might be pleasantly surprised. Carol
Beautiful floral painting. Sometimes we do our best work when we’re trying something different, right? I highly recommend that you try a portrait.
Chris, thanks for the nudge on trying a portrait. Funny, when I think about it, I cannot seem to think of who I would want to paint. I will keep looking for inspiration and, no, I am not interested in doing a self portrait. 🙂
When I started my first portrait after three years of painting abstracts exclusively, I was afraid I was too rusty to pull it off. But it turned out to be one of my best portraits ever. I think pushing myself out of my comfort zone does something amazing to our brains.
When I started my first portrait after three years of painting abstracts exclusively, I was afraid I was too rusty to pull it off. But it turned out to be one of my best portraits ever. I think pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones does something amazing to our brains.
Chris, oh I get what you are saying. The key word for me is “inspired.” I used it above. So far I haven’t run across any faces that inspire me to paint them. The flowers inspired me to try something outside of my comfort zone.
And, at the moment, I have a couple of other experiments going on on my easel. Hence, a portrait will have to wait. 🙂