I have been experimenting with using brushes as "mock palette knives." I received three beautiful new brushes from my sister-in-law for Christmas and that inspired me to buy a few more. Believe it or not, I haven't bought any new brushes in about 20 years! We painters become very attached to our brushes, and typically to one or two out of the ten or so we have. Not only that, but in recent years I have mostly been using palette knives to paint. so I haven't really needed to buy brushes.
I have found though, that my Parkinson's makes it a little harder to control the palette knife - sometimes the big swooping clouds in my paintings are not on purpose! So, I'm back to using brushes more, but as I said, using them like palette knives, with quick, directional motion rather than going for precise detail.
Adding a heavy gel medium to the paint makes it quite thick, so I can apply it with a quick directional motion up, down or sideways, leaving as much paint on the surface as desired. The quicker the motion, the more painterly and textural the effect. I'm having fun playing around with the new brushes to see what kinds of effects I can create.
Here's an example of a piece I did using this approach. It's called Llano de San Juan Farm. Llano is a small New Mexican village nestled in the Truchas mountains.
And here are a few more examples of what I've been up to this past month. A little bit of the southwest, and a little bit of southwest Florida.
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| String of Distant Mesas |
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| Autumn, Low Southwest Desert |
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| Cathedral Rock Semi-abstract |
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| Fog on the Horizon |
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| Three Big Guys |
