I’ve been playing with knives.

Palette knives that is.

No one trusts me with the real kind…sigh.

This first one is acrylic, 11 x 14, inches  This is the Wheatfield in Gettysburg, PA. where we visited recently.

The Wheatfield had during one day over 20,000 men fighting on her soil and ended with mass causalities. It’s not a terribly large area,  I can’t imagine what they must have suffered through. It’s one of the many places on this earth where if you stand still for a moment you can feel the sorrow welling up.

With this painting I used the palette knife over a brushed in backdrop. The brushwork on the bottom layer was used to create the soft edges of the distant hills.

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This tree was a fun sort of leftover paint attack. This was done solely and a bit souly with knives. I really enjoyed throwing the paint around on this.  It’s in acrylic and is approximately 11 by 14 inches.

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This one wasn’t done with a knife, just regular old brushes. My brushes are so beat up, I hold on to them until the very end. Acrylics are rough on brushes. Some people will tell you to spend a tonne of money on brushes but really as long as they’re not the kind where the hairs fall out, the cheap ones are fine.  It’s 4×6 inches and I call it “Blue Christmas” ’cause I love Elvis.

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And here’s another 4×6 inches. This is an acrylic of one of my favorite ornaments, an inch high wooden rocking horse.

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If you have any questions about the paintings or technique or what have you, feel free to ask in the comments.

Have a good one.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

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