Messin' around with a Palette Knife

(Click on painting for a closer, better look!)

This painting has undergone many transformations. When I started it, the subject was a landscape, but a different view and the colors were brighter. It was one of those days where I craved painting and didn't really have anything specific in mind beyond painting a landscape when I began this. From the start I didn't like the first painting. I rummaged through some of my reference photos and came across this photo which was taken with my cell phone somewhere along 71 N. Early morning lots of mists.



The painting was doing OK. I wish I'd taken a pic during the middle of the progression. Oh, well. So it was doing OK. Not great. I started using a palette knife to scrape away some paint, I liked the marks the knife left on the canvas. After that, most of the painting was finished using a palette knife, a piece of a credit card (good for scraping and drawing into the surface), a litho pencil, and some oil pastels. I feel like it's mostly done, it'll take s few days of sitting and looking at it before I make any changes. The middle section may get reworked-the colors were getting muddy. It is greatly changed from my reference photo, but that is why I like to use cell phone photos; they're used for general composition, mood,and some color.




Close ups of the textural areas.



This one captures the beautiful purples that are in this painting. (I don't think the picture of the whole painting captures the colors accurately.) I bought some supplies with a Christmas gift I received for the art store. I've been coveting a tube of Old Holland Violet for a long time. I indulged and bought it, pricey but soooo worth it. It's the kind of color that makes my fingers itch to paint, to mix the color with others, to see what it can do. It does beautiful things!!