I never knew what to do with palette knives except scrape paint and, of course, clean the palette. I'd see some painters I admire doing a few palette knife tricks, but I stayed away from it. But one day I was fooling around and found that the knife was able to make crisp clean colors. But still, I was afraid to actually use it in a painting. Then I took a workshop with Dan Young who showed me the ropes. He'd furtively pull out his little knife like it was some sort of contraband. Tweak Tweak here and a tweak tweak there..... And thus began my journey. But to be honest, I used it a few times and put it away . . . . until this week. My friend Doris O'Hara, a painter in Point Dume took a look at one of my paintings and said, "David, you need to get out your palette knife. Your brushwork is too tight. Push some paint around!"
I took her advice to heart and and did 4 paintings with my knives. I now think that I'm addicted. I've got a long way to go. I need to get more thick juicy strokes but I gotta start somewhere.
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| I have always been intimidated by Sage and Rabbit Brush yet somehow the palette knife turned it all around. |
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| This painting of the Owens River outside Bishop truly sucked before I took out the Big Knife and slapped some real paint up there. |
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| This was good fun although it endured a long ugly period as the painting developed. Felt hopeless at one point but mushed on. |
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| This is the one Doris said to attack with the knife. Not as loose as I want to be, but I guess this is my style. |
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