This painting started out with a struggle because I had ordered the wrong panel for the job. It slowed my process way down until I gave up wanting to control the thing and let it dictate my moves. I'm happy with the result. Wanting to go full-on abstract at some point.
A palette knife painting using wax medium but no hot air. It seems whenever I reach for the gun, it's not there, so I proceed forth without.
This is what I'd call a simplified landscape painting, not quite in the abstracted landscape ballpark, done mostly with a palette knife. Nonetheless, I like the copper tones in this one. I think they offset the buildings in the background nicely. The scene is inspired by the smoke from the recent Canadian fires that drifted down into the U.S., especially along the East Coast.
Upon hearing of the death of Sinead O'Connor at the young age of 56, I was moved to paint her portrait, as she was such a uniquely powerful singer, songwriter and activist. I thought I would challenge myself by doing this portrait with a palette knife. It was challenging.
This study is a rural scene from the lower end of Taos, New Mexico, mostly done with palette knife.
Continuing with this little burst of still life exploration that I'm going through, I'm trying to push more abstraction into the mix with the palette knife here. I do like the warm textural effects of the background and the cool green foreground, but the mauve vase was what I was after.
This is a palette knife study in progress, about 95% done. I rarely do still life paintings, but I'm pushing myself to do them now in a way that is more expressive than representative. Still, it's all about color for me.
Just playing with color here, and abstract shapes. Somehow, a dog insisted on making an appearance. There you go!
This painting was inspired by the work of Flora Yukhnovich, a British painter who pushes disrupted realism to a new level. After reading about her and pouring over her pieces, I felt like playing with paint and pushing the boundaries of realism myself. It was fun and freeing, and I plan to do more of it!
Here's a palette knife painting I whipped up today of the Lynch Creek area in east Petaluma in springtime, with the mustard flowers forming a citron carpet in the field. To go along with the blustery weather we're having, I tried to move like the wind with my palette knife, and it turned out much to my liking!
Here's another landscape ditty from my imagination, done with a palette knife.
Sometimes I just need to paint without the least concern for details or the viability of the end result, and such was the case with this palette knife painting. The inspiration for it came from a photo I had taken of a vase of roses on my outdoor table, and I wanted to see if I could push it toward abstraction. As far as that goes, I think I achieved what I was after, which was a very satisfying experience. Update, 11.22.2021: I revisited this painting and felt the urge to add a few leaves, which I did with a brush. Now it's done!
I had an urge to paint some food and this seemed like a fun subject, using a palette knife to paint the ice cream layers within the dessert. I've had the urge to paint food before but don't recall ever following through on it until now.
