The Knife Painting Gets a Life

  I like the finished painting quite a lot the way it was but I ran the photo through several different lighting filters to pull out different colors and effects.

This one brightened the colors up.

This kept it a bit pale and enhanced the lavender tones.

Here's the Blue

Here's the Yellow

 and Black and White

I'll Start with these images first and then move on to adobe photo shop to see how many other things that I can do with it.

Knife Painting and the Evolution of a Painting

I found myself quite frustrated with that Iris painting and rubbing the whole thing out so I grabbed a more more canvases and my painting knives and began just stabbing and slashing bits of color at them until I relaxed and began to feel better.

I like the unexpected nature of the results and the uninhibited nature of the process because you can never tell where it will lead you. 

I often get ideas for great paintings from an unusual color combination or composition of shapes.

 That small canvas and it's combination of greens began to suggest a garden so I'm going with that idea and attempting to do a painting of my front flower bed.

Once I'd decided to paint my garden on that green canvas the work went quickly.

Each day I give the other Canvases another try hoping to find a color combination that I like.

The Finished Painting

Starting Out Small, The Big Surprise

In the 52 years I've been painting I've gone back to this sort of work (knife painting) again and again in sizes up to five feet across.

Today I turned the process upside down on a canvas panel that was only four by six inches (10.16 x 15.24 cm) and my smallest palate knives.

 
The real surprise in the process was that doing the small one was every bit as fun as working really large. it's just all about the colors and textures.

Knife painting can be soothing, in spite of the name of it.

I looked at this painting a while and then got kind of a fun idea. I used to paint vases and flowers using these as backgrounds so I thought it would be fun to give it a try in this size too.

Here you see it with one of the inspiration paintings. It was a real challenge to paint the vase so tiny this time.

Because of the colors used in the background this time I decided to use daisies and was able to refer to my garden photos on the inspiration page of my scrapbook to help me get the various shapes right. I painted these with a size # 1 liner brush. By the time I added the paint to the centers of the flowers I had to use a toothpick!

I was very happy with the results. Imagine having a "real" painting tiny enough to pop in your pocket or purse. Perfect for people that are on the move a lot. Everyone needs art in their lives, no matter where or how they live. This just did my heart good and I think it will do the same for others as well.

I had done something similar to this with daisies 15 or 20 years ago. It's nice to know that I could have this one with me always, even if I end up in a nursing home.

Adding Pink

At this point I'm not thinking about what i want the painting to be, just adding another color and waiting to see how that affects the balance and look of the thing.

As I do that, my breathing slows and I'm just experimenting with the amount of pressure I want to apply it with and how that affects the way the paint breaks from the knife as I skip lightly across the surface.

The reason I had started applying lighter colors is that I thought I might use this canvas as a background for a still life or a floral at some point but I may give up on that idea and go back to just enjoying the intense colors that I had going yesterday.

Day 3 on the Swinger painting, more knifework, texture and color

As I added the more intense colors and texture to the background I began to see where I'd gone wrong with the basic shape of the camera. As I go back to work on it this afternoon I'll be attempting to correct that before taking a breath and diving into the knifework with whatever color pops out of my paintbox first.

Sometimes I make things more interesting or challenging by closing my eyes and picking 3 colors at random to see where they'll take me.

As you can see there are a lot of different types of energy at work here. At this point the push/pull of the colors is unsettling but stay with me. it's going to get worse before it gets better.

The mood shifts on the swinger painting, day 2

I repainted the body of the camera and rounded the edges a bit more to better capture the look and style of the camera.

With my paints out again I couldn't resist "playing" with the background, finger painting as well as using brushes and pallet knives. As the layers of color build I stop wading around the edges and get ready to really dive into the painting. It will come off the easel and be worked flat on the table for a while.

Found while sorting out the studio

This photo is about 10 years old and I don't even have most of these paintings or drawings anymore but it was an interesting moment in time when I was doing those knife painted flowers and experimenting with different types of paint (acrylic, oil, alkyds) and tools (painting knives, bits of plastic,wood, my hands, old silverware). It's nice to have seen so many of them displayed together.

It's headed out in the mail now. There's always someone who loves to get pictures or who finds the mail a welcome break in a difficult day. It didn't take long to put together and we've all enjoyed it, haven't we?

Detail Views of large painting