Impasto & Palette Knife

So I have been experimenting lately with palette knife painting after seeing some incredible paintings online that used this technique.  The paintings are so textured and alive!  For my first attempt, I decided to use a photograph of pink flowers I took last year at the park as inspiration and used the palette knife to paint the background.  I mixed my acrylic paints with a heavy acrylic gel medium to give them more weight and texture.  Here is the photograph:

And here is my painting interpretation:

I love how the palette knife helped me to make the background imitate the grass texture, while keeping it somewhat blurry so that the focus is on the flowers.

Obviously I did not paint the flowers using the palette knife, because I wanted them to be more clear and show up more realistically.  They still have a textured feel because of the textured background.

Another palette knife painting I finished this week was inspired by the colors gold and red.  I think those two colors together are beautiful, so I was inspired to paint red tulips on a gold background to imitate dusk, fall, or a sunset (depending on how the viewer interprets it!).  Here is the painting:

I think this is a technique I will teach to my art students this year because it makes them think about how colors are used together and the marks they are making on the painting.  I think it will also help to loosen up my "perfectionist" art students  =)

I'd love to hear some of what you guys have experienced with the palette knife!

Be sure to check out my etsy site for examples of my paintings:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyjae

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