Knife Painting

Well, I had great fun at the Marie Green oil painting workshop I attended yesterday! We had just started painting the still life when Marie began to observe me, and after a moment suggested that I try the subject using only a painting knife, and not my brushes - she said it would be a good challenge for me.

I had never done a knife painting before. I have used the knife here and there, but for the first time I painted everything with the knife and learned a heck of a lot. The painting is not great, but given that I only used four tubes of paint and one knife, I think it's OK.

Fish and Fruit 

Oil on paper, 11 x 14"

Pigments and Palettes

Later this month I'm attending a one-day oil painting workshop given by a local artist.  It's a beginner's class, but I'll take anything to do with oil painting right now. (I'm finding it is the most convenient medium for me to work with now that I am home with my first baby - I can come back to a piece hours later and just pick up where I left off.)

The workshop will be focused around creating paintings with a limited "primary triad" palette consisting of only cyan, magenta, and yellow.  The instructor has recommended the following (Art Spectrum brand):

• Cadmium Yellow (PY35)
• Permanent Magenta (PV19, PV23)
• Phthalo Blue (PB15:3, PW21)

I will be using my M. Graham & Co. paints, plus Michael Harding's Magenta - PR122 is too much of a glorious pigment to go unused. :)

Maxwell Wilks Workshop

This weekend I was fortunate enough to attend a two-day soft pastel workshop held by Australian artist Maxwell Wilks. Max has a very fresh approach to pastels, and the vibrancy in his work is amazing. He achieves this by a very direct application of his pastel layers - coupled with the fact that he never blends or smudges anything.

Watching Max at work was a real treat, so to commemorate the event, I purchased one of the pastel painting demonstrations that he did on the first day of the workshop. Here is his masterpiece: