Spring Palette Knife Painting

After my first exposure to a limited palette via this workshop with Morton Kaish, I have tried to keep my paint colors to a minimum and mix as much a possible. It is liberating to me.

I designed a class to teach this approach and have been teaching "Paint in the Manner of Van Gogh" at Great Neck Adult Education Center and The Newark Museum. My intention is to inspire direct strong strokes with the use of a palette knife and challenge the learning process as you learn more about mixing colors.


This is a special workshop taught by Mort Kaish at the National Academy in 2009. The triad of colors is Cadmium Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson and White. I am using acrylic paint on Masonite board toned with Ultramarine Blue acrylic.


Portrait of a Model, Over-Sized Head, Palette Knife, Limited Palette.

The charcoal sketch is painted over in black acrylic paint to facilitate fast drying. We are told to think of stained glass leading, where one area attaches to another, and is clearly outlined.



This is my finished outlined, leaded head.
The board is 24" x 18".

Beginning by premixing the paints for the skin tones, I begin to apply the strokes. It is an "apply scrape off the excess stroke". As one works the face, the under layers are drying and allowing for
additional color applications. There is a see thru effect, due to the scraping off of the excess paint. This is not about frosting a cake.

The "leading" allows you to separate the areas of the image. This provides clarity and acts as a road map. It also guides you toward selecting distinct colors and avoid too much blending. This is a new tool to most and a helpful approach to applying color.

Texture will inevitably occur as the under layers have been scraped. Acrylic paint allows for a lot of layering in 2, 3 hour sessions. You can see the variety of colored layers on the surface as they continue to build the form over the 2 sessions on this model.


The dark areas are mixed from the limited palette. I did not get to the background other then to make an outline.



The object was not a real likeness, but the color interaction and liberation of using the primary triad of color to develop all the colors needed. The "darks" are the most challenging because the value and color has to be deep.

I love this theory so much, it is my second time taking the workshop. Mr. Kaish has incorporated both the knife and brush in his own wonderful work.

Palette Knife Painting Demo

I have been using knives to mix paint, deliver clean color to a canvas, and sometimes along with brushes in paintings.The approach to this painting was:

(1) A very complete charcoal drawing of Jason on the18 x 24 board, pre-primed with Cobalt, or Ultramarine Blue/Shocking for a ground.

(2) The drawing and the patchwork quilt background were painted in black so that it appeared as the leading in a stained glass window or paint-by-number drawing. The color story was a limited palette of Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cobalt or Ultra Blue, White, and later on Black.

I LOVE THIS TRIAD OF COLORS and enjoyed the huge vocabulary of primary, secondary and tertiary colors AND, premixing the colors, allows one to work very FAST and the colors stay BRIGHT AND CLEAN.



The application is to put on the color and remove, apply and remove, allowing for lots of under layers showing through, and immediate reapplication as the color is thin enough to keep going , on and on. I love to work fast, I love color, and I got very taken up with the movement and the multi color layering which was happening before my eyes.



Parts of the drawing fell away, and the portrait emerged. Additional colors and layers seemed easy, and the complexity of the surface was very gratifying. The drawing, and outlining, color mixing of the palette, and the paint application took two, three hour sessions. Not a lot of overworking, as the results seemed to say "finished" with no second thoughts on my part.



A fellow student took this one of me in process. I am so psyched with the Limited Palette that I plan to teach, and use it in the Taos Workshop, in June.



Here is an interesting shot, of the model (very warm colors) which really pops on this intense blue ground. Painting on grey grounds, makes for grey paintings, in my view.

This crazy approach kept my colors in a vivid, lively range, and I will be doing more with this approach for plein air landscape. Alternating with brush and knife is a totally awesome arsenal.



Coming into the homestretch, just adding color everywhere, and staying true to the fun and spontaneous nature of the application.

I will most likely push the background back a bit, as it is too close in value and intensity to the portrait. This had all the elements I needed to keep me challenged, and gratified and
NOT frustrated, or bored.



1) Clarity of drawing, and an armature to guide me, or to hide as I went along

2) Color that stayed clean, and lively, and allowed for multiple layers in a short period of time without causing mud, or overworking the surface. Can’t wait to pass on my new skills, and develop the premise further.

New Figurative Work

I am doing figurative work, both in pastel, charcoal, and oil. I do exploratory drawings first to familiarize my self with the model. Then on to an oil that, hopefully, will be informed by the previous studies. "Donna" has a magisterial bearing, and is very colorful. This is actually the first sketch, which is the most inventive, as far as use of color, and line. I have been drawing with a bamboo pole holding the charcoal, which gives more excited, agitation to the line.

As this is the last of this series, I was able to abstract forms in color areas, and in the robe, my need for details and "finish" having already been satisfied. This is another sequence of visual thoughts on paper, supporting the oil painting. This one keeps details painterly, and with interesting brush work, while remaining realistic. My predilections and skills seem to go naturally in this direction. Pulling it all together is the continuing fascination, and the reason that I paint...

This was such fun for me. After being on the other side of the canvas, I finally got to do some modeling, filling in for an absent model. Sitting there and watching the painters painting ME, was quite educational. The grimaces, and concentration that I have experienced, were now visual proof that what we all go through trying and trying to get it right.



Here are some of the results of the short 2 + hours. Married to an artist, you would think the he would love to paint his live-in model. Not so! So this was really a treat for me and I loved the results from artists of different skills and intentions.

Self Portraits are something that challenges the artist. It is at once a chronicle of your aging self (problematic, especially for women) and an opportunity to study your inner-outer self in various lighting conditions and places.

"Shelli, Self Portrait '08"
oil on canvas, 14" x 18"

An advantage is that the model is always available. Rembrandt did MANY of his best works in this manner, Bonnard, and Beckman to name a few others.

Done in interior florescent overhead lighting, the colors are cool, and the shadows are below. At first I was concerned with an attractive, flattering painting, then I got into the challenge of the lighting influencing the colors, as well as a likeness, and the short time allotted to the painting (3 hrs). It shows pensive, concentration, and a likeness - which is what it is.