From the Artist: I enjoyed the project but found I could only paint in the Impressionistic style when using a knife. It was good to try something new.
From the Painting Guide: A painting knife does lend itself to a loose style of painting, though this isn't to say that it's the only way -- some people do really detailed work with a knife. It's a question of practice and trying a few different shapes of knife, and giving yourself the time to learn to exactly what you can do with it as you once did with a brush.
But then I think the loose style of this painting has a glorious feeling of a garden in full bloom, of color erupting in all directions and totally filling your senses, of the chaos of a cottage garden, inviting you closer to figure out the individual blooms and species of flower. If it were painted with finer detail, it'd be a totally different painting with a totally different feeling to it. I think this celebrates what paint can create, the power of suggesting and leaving the viewer's brain to fill in the detail.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
This is very much a matter of personal preference and style, but I would add a bit of darker tone to the trees in the background to create a sense of depth. Or I would paint another row of flowers in front of them to bring the two elements closer together. The sudden change in height while being so similar in tone bothers me somewhat.
From the Painting Guide: A painting knife does lend itself to a loose style of painting, though this isn't to say that it's the only way -- some people do really detailed work with a knife. It's a question of practice and trying a few different shapes of knife, and giving yourself the time to learn to exactly what you can do with it as you once did with a brush.
But then I think the loose style of this painting has a glorious feeling of a garden in full bloom, of color erupting in all directions and totally filling your senses, of the chaos of a cottage garden, inviting you closer to figure out the individual blooms and species of flower. If it were painted with finer detail, it'd be a totally different painting with a totally different feeling to it. I think this celebrates what paint can create, the power of suggesting and leaving the viewer's brain to fill in the detail.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
This is very much a matter of personal preference and style, but I would add a bit of darker tone to the trees in the background to create a sense of depth. Or I would paint another row of flowers in front of them to bring the two elements closer together. The sudden change in height while being so similar in tone bothers me somewhat.