Author: -N-

First, I am not at all sure where I found the photograph upon which this painting is based – public domain? If not, and it is yours, I am sorry I cannot give you credit. Let me know, ok?

Oil paints on Canson Oil/Acrylic paper.

Initially I started out with a brush and soon realized that whatever I tried to paint was just not working. The grasses were not clear and sharp and the clouds were blobby. In the end, and out of frustration, I took a palette knife and used it to smear color into the painting – and all of a sudden I found out what painting in oils with a palette knife is capable of doing.

I am prejudiced against heavy impasto just because I don’t find it interesting to look at. First in my mind is how much dust it could collect and what a pain heavy impasto paintings could be to clean. Much impasto is done with a knife – though brushes also do the job, as seen in the work of van Gogh. So, I have avoided it to date.

Smearing paint around with a knife gives some dimension (3D) on a flat surface, but the way the paint moves is so interesting! I also used the knife tip to scratch away in the colors for the grasses, and that was both doing what I wanted to do, as well as somehow felt deliciously rebellious against my conformist self.

The snow, though, and the river, are done with brush. Brushwork was laid down first pretty much throughout the painting, and my aggravation then brought out the knife. Learning experience. And, I don’t think I could have rendered either sky or grasses anywhere to my liking with a brush of any size.

Live and learn.

11×14, knife and brush, on paper.