Impasto Painting-Oil Paints Without Solvents

Impasto painting is a perfect technique to use without solvents.  Check my earlier post that tells about the supplies that I use for painting with oil paints without solvents.  I love to use thick juicy paint that builds an interesting surface texture - that is what impasto is.   Some parts are smoothed out somewhat so that the thick ones stand out even more.  The lightest strokes are the thickest impasto paint. 

Palette Knife Painting Demonstration

This demonstration shows how I use a palette knife to blend colors together in the sky. The palette knife is also handy for giving variety to the colors in the trees.  I place thick impasto paint with my palette knife over wet paint to build up layers of different colors.  I switch to a brush to show the light coming through the trees.  I let the brush strokes show.

Impasto just means thick paint, and it can be applied with either a palette knife or a brush.The surface of the painting becomes an important feature of the work.  I love the buttery texture of paint straight from the tube and I am sensitive to the solvents many people use, so I learned to use oil paints without solvents.

Palette knife painting has many advantages - it's fun, it can be done without any solvents, and it makes for a very interesting painting.  So use your palette knife for something other than mixing paint!

Composition of an Abstract Landscape

Some people can work intuitively, but I need a plan.  I sketched a row of trees across the horizon.  What I wanted was to use this band of trees to divide the space into three uneven spaces.  The band of trees is the smallest, followed by the sky and then the ground is largest.  The band of trees contains the darkest values and most intense colors.  I sketch the shapes using a middle value gray.

I chose a limited palatte of cerulean blue, paynes gray, yellow ochre and white.   All of my colors were mixtures of these three colors, which provides an analagous color scheme.  That is, colors adjacent on the color wheel -yellow, blue- and green.  I established the dark shapes by loosely brushing these colors together without blending them too much.  After that I add white to the same colors and place in the sky with a knife.

I fill in the rest of the ground area still using the same color, only a little darker than the sky using a brush and a knife.  After this I decide to get a little more variety by adding some light orange and some light magents.
This is for sale at dailypaintworks.

This is a link to my painting tutorials at gumroad.   I have one for $10 on sunflowers.  Thirty-three minutes with step-by-step instructions.  https://gumroad.com/jfitzgerald

Oil Paint Without Solvents

Oil Paint Without Solvents

I love the way oil paints handle and the depth of the color, but I am very sensitive to mineral spirits and mediums so I was thrilled to realize I can use oil paints without any solvents.  

Murphy oil is actually an excellent brush cleaner.  Just mix it with water in equal parts.  It is good for your brushes, too.  Just don't let bristle brushes stay in it for any length of time.  Wash and dry them when you are finished.  Synthetic brushes can stay overnight without any damage but the bristle brushes would absorb the water.

Waxed Paper that I buy at the grocery is fantastic for cutting down on clean up time.  I cover my palette with waxed paper.  I also store the unused paint on a strip of waxed paper, fold it up and insert it into a plastic bag, and store in the freezer.  My unused paint will stay fresh for a week this way.  I just made a trip to Ohio and when I got back, I got the paints out land started painting.  They were just as fresh as when I put them in a week earlier.

Sunshine on the Creek

Create more interesting color in a summer green landscape by letting the eye mix the colors.  If all you see is a sea of green allow the eye to mix the colors rather than get out a tube of green paint and add white to lighten it and black to darken it.  Take advantage of the blues and purples in the shadows and the oranges and yellows in the light to bring interest to the scene.  The green areas can range from light yellow green to dark blue green.  

"Sunshine on the Creek"

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/charlotte-fitzgerald/sunshine-on-the-creek/758854

The dappled light coming through the trees creates interesting patterns in the water.

Birch Trees

"Birch Trees"

Oil on archival gessoboard  - 6x6 in

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/charlotte-fitzgerald/birch-trees/756726

The light colored bark on these trees ceate an interesting patterrn with the lights on the water.

Knife Painting

https://youtu.be/KvoYkRE0co4

The above link shows some of the knife painting I did on this painting.  The painting itself is a 6X6 oil available at Dailypaintworks.