The ART of THICK PAINT

26. Using the Palette Knife

For years I have avoided using palette knives. I associated it with a facile, mannered appearance and I thought it best to avoid that look. There were also painters I knew who painted primarily with a palette knife and I felt I needed to differentiate myself from their work. While I feel that conformity is a form of slavery, it is equally limiting to avoid exploring a technique or tool simply because others use it.

It's sad that it took me so long to use palette knives because in many ways it is more harmonious to the art form with which I had most the familiarity, the art of woodcut. The palette knife is similar to a v-gouge in the way that it tends to impart a straight line. This tendency of a tool to impart a certain type of mark can be used to remedy many weaknesses.

Initially in my painting career I had a tendency to use a lot of round bristle brushes. As you might imagine such brushes give a rounded, loose look to the paint and the resultant paintings tended to look soft and mushy. So I shifted to using flat bristles. The stiffness of the flats helped to give a more angular look to my strokes. I finally switched to bristle brights which could be used almost like a palette knife using the flat of the bristles to load up paint and smear on the canvas like a palette knife. This technique improved my painting so much I decided to make the final shift to a more angular mark making tool, the palette knife.

I have since experimented with many shapes and sizes. Just like with brushes it is best to use the largest palette knife possible to make the mark you need. I became so enthused about palette knives I bought more than I needed and I have many, such as the squarish diamond-shaped knives, that I probably will never use. Some of the more novelty type knives impart a formulaic, clichéd mark. But I believe in experimentation and it is always best to try a tool if you have the impression it might solve one of your weaknesses.

One brush I have never used a lot although I have a few in my studio are Filbert brushes. Filberts impart a soft edged stroke and are especially good for painting the line where sky and mountain meet, especially in the far distance. I also use a long filbert to apply very wispy branches or paint telephone lines. I can load up a lot of color all along the bristles and slowly drag them across a surface all the while controlling the angle of the bush to allow for an even deposit of color.