One of the best things I've ever done to improve as an artist lately is to put down my brushes. I'm thinking maybe I might not ever pick them up again. I'm a child of the baby-boomer, Bob Ross style of painting, heavy on the technique and light on content. I've spent the better part of my adult life trying to "improve" my technique carefully trying to maintain a balance between visually correct and photorealistic. I wouldn't like to think of any of my work as so dead as to be considered "realistic" but there it is. I want to break away from that so I've taken my brushes away from myself. I have to say so far I really love the way palette knives force me away from busy detail. I want to take that alot farther and I'm sure it will evolve to the point that my work takes on a nice comfortable abstraction. I don't want to work my paintings to death! A palette knife will help me do that. Here's my first attempt. I used a yellow underpainting because of all the blues and greens. I worked fairly small...9" by 12". I would like to work larger but this was sufficient for the amount of time I had before the sun went down. So now....the mermaids are coming. More on that soon.
