Knife painting...

It's funny how things work sometimes. I've been in a terrific painting slump, but since I'm planning to start the exercises in "How to See Color and Paint It," a formerly out of publication art instruction book by Arthur Stern (more on that later), I decided I'd better try to do a knife painting to get some practice, since all the exercises are done with a painting knife.

So a few days ago, that's what I did. I didn't really even have a plan or an idea of what I was going to paint until a few minutes before I started. I just opened up my reference photo files on my computer and chose one of the first ones I saw, and then jumped in without even doing a sketch! This is definitely not like me.

Oh my, did that knife feel clunky. It made it completely impossible to get the nice straight lines that are my inclination (after all those years of architecture) and I felt completely out of control. But, amazingly, in the end it turned out pretty well. The lines aren't straight and it looks sort of messy in places, but it seems to work. And it's got a spontaneous look to it and the color worked out well. So now I'm seeing this painting as a sort of amazing break through. Maybe I'm finally learning not to overthink it and just paint!

So here is "Fall in Fremont, 2005"
8x10 oil on canvas board