Rising Above

Here steps I take on building my paintings up. I tend to start with strong warm colors, sometimes laying it down thick with a knife or just painting it quickly with a brush. Then as I lay the cooler colors (always with a knife), or local colors, the first notes often blend or just show through here and there depending how I feel about that particular passage. This method I try to do wet on wet, although larger paintings require many days to complete, and often I would need to take a passage at the time like a Fresco's "giornata", sky, foreground, trees really no particular order. In the first image are alrready started to lay in the blue sky.

I am ready!

I've painted all week and I am very excited to finally start creating new pieces. This is the first one, oil 12 x 12.

I did this all with a palette knife which is what I have used for the last few years. I love using a knife for several reasons such as being able to lay down pure color and mixing it directly on the canvas. It feels as if I am part of a 3 dimensional landscape, layering color upon color, almost like sculpting, although the knife work in many areas is hardly discernable.