The Texture of Blues from Palette Knives in a Stormy Year

"Blue Tempest," 5 x 5 acrylic on canvas

I've always admired painters who deftly use palette knives for texture and impact, but never attempted them until recently. along with acrylics, it's a whole new learning experience

There were always palette knives in our house when we grew up. Dad used them mostly for mixing colors, and I've done plenty of that in oils and acrylics. 

Regina's palette knives, Dad's book

 I didn't know how much they meant   to me until I saw and bought the late   Regina Murphy's knives of Paseo   Arts District and other materials   after  her death. They sit here in my   painting room, icons of creativity.   Then I found an old book of my   Dad's How to Paint with a Knife, and   began studying.

 So this week, I picked up about three   of them, began mixing colors and   applying them to the canvas. Since   my favorite colors are blues, and   we're in the midst of  storms--fires, hurricanes, floods, war, ignorance, worsening pandemic and politics  once again, here's the result.  

This is the last day of August and the year is two-thirds gone.  This semi-abstract sci-fi painting with violent  texture matching the moods of our country and world, roughly applied to the canvas, seems to fit.

New Learning on exhibit

5 x 5 acrylic paintings

 I've added something new to my art exhibit at In Your Eye Studio & Gallery in Paseo Arts District today, just in time for the Paseo Arts Festival this Labor Day weekend.

You've seen posts of some of the 5 x 5 acrylics I've attempted in the last two weeks, and four of them are finished and ready to purchase.

So there they are, amid my watercolors. Come by and see my learning. There will be more, and larger ones. But one lesson emerged I didn't count on. I will probably keep at acrylics, but they taught me something surprising--I really love watercolors. 

Part of my exhibit at In Your Eye in Paseo

Calm

"Why Worry?" 5 x 5 acrylic on canvas

"Peace, peace, there is no peace..." --Jeremiah 6:11

In stress-filled times like these as a pandemic and politics rage on, we need calm more than ever, for our mental and physical health, yet it can be hard to find.

Medicine, for blood pressure and anxiety, works some, but not always. I've said for quite a while, not really jokingly, that painting is my therapy. When I'm working on art, the rest of the world goes away as every painting is a series of problems to be solved, to be created.

I've also found other sources of daily peace, daily calm as well. Every morning as I sit down with coffee in an easy chair, I have two immediate visitors in my lap, one on each leg, Snoops and Sophie, our rescue cats.  I have an "equal catortunity" lap. Petting or stroking them, while they purr does wonders for enjoying present tense and morning sunlight, preventing doom  scrolling media.

So today's acrylic painting lesson combines calmness, inspired by Sophie, though she's prettier than this.

Earth and Sky

From the Earth, 5 x 5 acrylic on canvas

When I'm stuck for ideas, I try to go back to what I know, what I've experienced, what brings up emotions  that I don't always understand.

Growing up in New Mexico, I was almost always aware of adobe, changing with the light every second, accented by high altitude blue t skies. Add the colors of turquoise and red chili ristras. Home.

Today's little acrylic lesson, another take on a larger theme for OVAC's fundraiser in September. Turquoise Power

The Magic of Dawn

"Dawn," 5 x 5 acrylic on canvas

First light. A magic time when colors return to our landscapes. Dawn of a new day for hopes, challenges, learning.

Usually this is a time for parents and children to be excited about the new school year, but this year it is tempered by fears and uncertainty as a lack of leadership in this state and others combines to threaten the lives of our children and grandchildren.

But I still hope for each new day, for some magic of creativity to offset the doom and gloom. That's what my second lesson in acrylics is about today.