Palette Knife Paintings

I’ve been painting and painting the past year …. And painting! And painting, but I haven’t felt any elation over what I have been producing. The odd canvas has turned out to be rather alright …. But certainly those that reached that status were achieved only by accident. I’ve been painting without ‘joy’ and I do believe it shows in the final product. ‘Product’ … now there’s a word! That is what I have been doing …. ‘producing’ like a manufacturing plant…one with an assembly line. Producing the same product - canvas after canvas!

I began my artwork with a vision … I was going to translate the music, the exhilaration, the mood I feel in the Canadian landscape. Somewhere along the way the music stopped and I found myself simply painting ‘pretty’ pictures…..nothing awe inspiring whatsoever on the canvas. A photograph could achieve the results I see in my finished works.

I’ve been struggling to get away from detail…..but every time I pick up a paint brush I feel ‘control’ sweep in and obscure the message I had intended to convey….I was beginning to feel I would never scale the cliffs of ‘control’.

I’ve been working on several waterfall canvases lately …. And no matter how you slice it … there they are … waterfalls! Recently while setting up my palette for another waterfalls scene I thought I might begin as a friend of mine …. By applying acrylic matte medium and texturing the canvas. To do this I used a palette knife ….. and suddenly a life line appeared along the cliff … and I discovered a new frontier (for me) in my artistic search. The palette knife!

I spent ten minutes on each of these ‘waterfalls’ paintings …. Using the palette knife.

I love it. This artist’s tool has set me free! It is very difficult to ‘diddle with detail’ when the palette knife is loaded with paint. I’ve discovered freedom from ‘control’ and have recovered the joy of painting with expression …. Using the palette knife. A frontier I look forward to exploring as I wonder just how much I might be able to do with this tool.

A return for me  … to a limited palette. I selected only blues, yellow, a touch of crimson and white!


And …. Now I am again having FUN painting!

Aplogies and Futility

Apologies are in order. So sorry, I have been away from the world of ‘blogging’ for quite some time without any explanation and I apologize.

The second apology is for the quality of the photos attached to this blog. I still haven’t replaced my ‘water logged’ camera.

About my absence, I got caught up in the day-to-day tasks of living from December to March with mother in residence with me. I found that I was really reluctant to spend time on the computer or painting as I felt I was taking away time to spend with her. She is as you know almost 93 years of age and I know how important it is for her to spend time with her children; doubly important for me to spend time with her. And, unfortunately it takes time to adopt a new routine. So here I am once again, ready for the blogging world.

The paintings attached here are the results of a ‘self taught course’ I’ve been pursuing in my artistic development. The course is called “FUTILITY, FUTILITY, ALL IS FUTILITY’.

I give up, I concede. It doesn’t matter how much paint one plasters on a canvas…..you cannot ‘fix’ a canvas that is not working. But I’ve been working diligently, determined to succeed ….. ‘ah ‘tis futile’.

I am reluctant to give up on almost anything; the waterfalls is a large 30”x36” canvas … and to think I stretched it myself!

However, off to the bin with these two. I am determined to look at neither again. But, who knows I may get lucky in the next few days and be invited to an event for someone I really don’t like …. And they get the waterfalls!

This lesson has not been without rewards however, I have discovered a new approach to painting, which I will discuss tomorrow.

Once again, apologies; hope I still have a few readers out there.