Last month, I finished up my first acrylic painting done all with palette knives. What fun that was to learn a new way to paint, and I am very happy with the result. My sister gave it the title “For Life”. Perfect! (photo on the right)
So I still have palette knives on the brain when hubby and I discovered 5 seasons of Bob Ross on Hulu. They are a bit addicting to watch … that voice is so soothing! (Note: my son informed me he watches Bob Ross when he has trouble sleeping.)
So watching him paint mountains is just mesmerizing! And to hear the scraping of the palette knife — I just loved it! But Bob paints in oils, and I do not, so I needed to make some adjustments to his style when I used acrylic paint. First of all, there is no way to do a painting in 30 minutes!
I found a beautiful reference photo that I wanted to use with spring flowers and mountains in the background. I didn’t like everything about it, but the mountains were perfect to try to get that Bob Ross feel!
So here is where it started. I layered dark blue paint and let it dry between layers. Each time I applied a layer a little lighter with the palette knife, just scraper the paint on top of the last layer to create something close to that Bob Ross mountain texture!
Once I had the mountains, and the colors blocked, I decided to see if I could do the whole painting in palette knives. It turned out to be a lot of fun making water, grass and flowers, and I think I will stick with the palette knives for a while. Below is the final painting, which I named “Mountain Spring”. The painting makes me happy, and I hope it makes you happy too! The original is available for sale for $450 direct, until I bring it down to the gallery in July.
