Silent Refuge

 

A Return To The Palette Knife (my old friend)

A Very Complicated Scene! When I'm feeling stuck in my painting practice, I take out my palette knives and squeeze out large lakes of paint to help me loosen up again. "Silent Refuge" (bottom photo) actually started out as a very tight, complicated painting. It was so confusing to look at- I tried to render individual leaves and branches and ripples on the water. I won't share my "before" painting here since you would surely think that I'd completely lost my mind! A photo reference of the scene is here. Just when I thought about flinging it out of the window, I thought, hey, I'll use this complicated mess as an underpainting for a palette knife painting!

My Thumbnail Guide Before I painted on the canvas, I took out a small gesso board and painted a very simplified scene to use as my guide. I put this guide next to my canvas, and looked at it while I painted on top of my original canvas.

Once again, my old friend the palette knife helped me to simplify the shapes and color passages of the scene. There is no way on earth I could put in tiny little shapes with the flat edge of a knife. I was much happier with the flat planes of color that resulted. And the viewers can fill in the detail in their mind's eye! I don't have to do all that heavy lifting!

"Silent Refuge" Oil on Canvas, 16"x12"x3" (gallery wrapped canvas)

For more information on "Silent Refuge", please click here.