After my very early experiences with painting instruction, and my quite recent ventures into different techniques as a retired adult, it came to me that starting out by using painting knives instead of brushes could be a very useful way of eliminating the common reliance on tight control and tiny details that so many of us get involved in.
I am using painting knives more and more in my own work–and I love the freedom of expression that they spontaneously bring to painting. I admit to being somewhat horrified by the volume of paint required, however. As a painter of tiny miniatures, the fact that one scoop of the knife can gather more paint than needed for an entire painting of my usual size and style is more than a tad unnerving.
Perhaps that is one reason that my class and I are enjoying grabbing a knife to scrape our palette at the end of a session, then just playing with the paint. Some results are rather mediocre–but others get the “WOW !” reaction. Besides, it is so much more interesting than just wiping the palette clean and heading home as we used to do. On days like today, some of us will even work the entire session with our knife in hand. We are finding that using 140# or heavier watercolour paper, or stretched canvas, works well for this method. In class we work mostly with acrylics, although watercolour is a second choice. As we paint at the local Seniors’ Drop-In Centre, we have mostly avoided oils because of their odor/solvent requirements. There is no need to gas the Scrabble players behind us!
Through this process I was reminded that our senses, as amazing as they are, don’t give us the “full” experience. The things that matter the most to us are the ones that sometimes our visual mind could even fight because they are not in the view; yet, without the things that protect us and give us a sense of security and peace we only have a partial view.