Palette Knife Wave

"Palette Knife Wave"

Image size 4" x 6"

Water Miscible Oils

This is another palette knife painting.  I love the texture and movement that can be achieved with the palette knife.

I spent a lot of time this week working on my clay mosaic mural.  I made a decision that will make it take a lot longer to finish it though.

I decided to re-cut the entire small side that shrunk so much, rather than trying to make it work by recutting some pieces and using some of the smaller pieces.  Also, I decided that the fish on this side were much smaller than on the larger side.  I guess I was paying more attention to how they fit into the smaller space when I designed it rather than having the correct scale to go with the larger side.  

I am using about half of the original pieces to make a mosaic painting that can hang on a wall.  I decided that it would be a good idea to be able to glaze a smaller version of what I'm doing to see how it turns out rather than glazing (painting) my huge mural and not being happy with the result.  Since it is hard to know how it will look once it is fired, I feel more comfortable having a trial painting.  So, maybe it's a good thing that the pieces shrunk so much.  I probably wouldn't have thought to do a trial painting otherwise.

I could have used more of the original pieces for this painting, but I decided that I didn't want the glass circles in this one.  I ended up cutting new pieces for about half of it.  I also moved one of the fish closer in so that he would be in this painting. When it is finished, it will be 18" x 36".  I'm a little worried about how heavy it will be, but I don't think it will be more than 50 pounds.  There are hooks for 100# paintings, so I should be okay.

Here is a picture of it showing the original pieces that will be used.  I have cut out the rest of the pieces and they are drying.  

So, this will probably add a couple of weeks to the finish date of the big mural for my yard.  It doesn't really matter.  Since it's for me, there is no 'finish by' date.  I'm usually just happy if I actually finish any project that is for me.