Under the Knife

Following the death of my old friend Ian Bennett, members of the Newcastle Painters Group were invited to take whatever of his painting materials they wanted to remind them of him. I needed very little in the way of paints and canvas, but I asked for one or two small brushes and a painting knife.

On Friday, just before going to my session with Gateshead Art Society, I decided I'd take along the painting knife. Then it occurred to me that writing "IAN" on it would ensure it didn't become mixed up with my other tools and that I'd always remember him when I used it.

Imagine my surprise when I turned it over to write on the back with a Posca Pen and found somewhat worn but still legible the "H." that I've often used on my cartoons and sometimes to mark my effects. It was my painting knife! How or when Ian came by it, I have no idea, but I think he would have laughed as much as I did.

Knife Garden

Knife Garden
(acrylic on watercolor paper)

All those who suggested I shouldn't touch this painting I produced with a painting knife at Tony Montague's workshop, may or may not be dismayed to find I couldn't let it lie.

I said I didn't like the sky and I meant it, so I took my brush in my hand, dug out some different blues and painted over the rather scrappy, turbulent sky of the original. I think the new sky is calmer and makes the painting much less frenetic. Using different blues has left an interesting halo round the big tree and I like that effect. I'll probably leave it alone now.

I've photographed the painting in a temporary mount, just to see how it might look framed.

The Path Never Taken

Path WIP
(Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm)

When doing Tony Montague's knife painting workshop a couple of weeks ago, one of the images I thought about using was a small monochrome inkjet print provided by Tony. In the end, I used another, but I was still interested in this monochrome because it showed a path through a wood, a theme that continues to fascinate me.

On Friday at Gateshead Art Society's weekly meeting, I thought I'd make a start on this image and see where it led. And this Work In Progress is where I got to by the end of the session. There's a great deal of the cadmium orange underpainting showing through and I intend to keep some of that, especially in the trunks of the tree. The main difficulty is sorting out the monochrome trees and branches, but I'm now at the stage where I can see the wood for the trees.

Knife Painting Workshop

Knife Workshop WIP

(acrylic on watercolour paper)

This is the result of an interesting workshop this afternoon, led by my old friend Tony Montague. Using one of Tony's own photographs of a garden whose name I've forgotten, this was done with heavy body acrylics and a couple of painting knives. No brush, other than to lay in some base colours on the 140 lb watercolour paper, and me very much out of my comfort zone.

It took me until the coffee break, when I stepped away, to recognise the better aspects of this painting, and I was very grateful for Tony's later offer of a pot of fluorescent orange that helped make it sing a bit.

This was my first use of heavy body acrylics and I was surprised to find that parts of the painting were still wet when it was time to take it home. All my recent experience of acrylic painting has been with standard, flow formula and fluid acrylic, all of which dry frighteningly fast.

I quite like this painting, but it needs cropping and I'm already thinking about how it might be improved with a brush and some other colours.