Just Can't Stop

I just finished yet another palette knife painting.

"Lone Tree"

12" X 16", Acrylic on panel

Original - $200

This painting is based on a photo I took in the small rural town of Fairfield, Utah.  I've now started collecting alternative painting tools, including quite an assortment of palette knives.

I haven't used all of these yet.  I used four of them in this painting including one of those odd Princeton rubber shapers, the one that looks like a spade.  I used that tool for most of the grass, probably not the way that Princeton intended.  The last palette knife on the right is one I just bought Saturday and I used it to add most of the foliage detail since it's narrow and has a rounded tip.  I probably used brushes on this painting the least of any painting so far.

I thought you might like to see what my palette looked like at the end of this painting.

I did have to clean it off once at the end of the first session, so this is how it looked at the end of the second session.  I use a Masterson Sta-Wet palette box but I don't use the sponge or paper. Instead I have a piece of glass in the bottom that's painted a neutral gray on one side.  I find glass much easier to mix on plus it's very easy to clean off using a razor blade scraper.  I used to use folded up dampened paper towel to set my paint piles on but I always had mold issues no matter what I did so now I don't and I don't really find the lack of moisture to be much of a problem, I just mist my paints every few minutes with an atomizer.  Notice how I keep my palette "attached" to the front of my easel.  I have a couple hooks screwed into the back of the easel and just let the lip of the box catch them.  Gravity is enough to keep everything in place and stable.  I learned this trick watching a DVD by John K. Harrell, though he uses a butcher tray for his palette.  Since the palette is just sitting there, not really attached it's easy enough to unhook it and put the air tight lid on to preserve the paint.

 For those artists that are curious here are the names of the paints I use starting from the left and going to the right, these are all Liquitex brand.  First is titanium white, then cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow medium, yellow oxide, burnt sienna, cadmium red light, cadmium red medium, ultramarine blue (red shade), ultramarine blue (green shade) and cerulean blue.  I don't normally put cerulean on my palette but for some reason I thought this painting needed some.