So earlier in my career, I limited myself to only painting with only a pallet knife for years. Why would anyone want to limit themselves as an artist?
It’s good to challenge yourself
You grow as an artist if you are forced to think about painting in a new way. I needed to challenge myself and build new painting muscles.
I wanted to explore the physical aspects of oil paint
As an oil painter, it’s easy to become enthralled with the material’s ability to render an image. I’m not that interested in photo realism. I wanted to make oil paintings, not images.
The paint has a physical presence. The paint has depth and texture. An oil painting is a physical object that exists in three dimensions.
I gained a higher appreciation for the material
With brushes, I tended to over-work the canvases. With a pallet knife I appreciated the knife marks.
Oil paint is so cool. I love how it looks. I love how it feels going on the canvas. By keeping the paint thick, you can really appreciate the medium. Oil paint is the best.
I discovered that a color can have a different appearance depending on how it was applied. A smooth application was shiny, but the same color can stand out with the stroke of the knife.
I learned to paint more expressively
Human expression is the point of art, in my opinion. The pallet knife makes it clear that an actual human being created the painting. The paint was slathered on and you can almost see the knife strokes and moves that I made. I’m wasn’t so concerned with tricking the viewer that what they are viewing is “real” but focuses on just applying the paint to the canvas.
I stopped thinking, and just painted. This put me in the zone. By limiting my options, I didn’t have to think so much…I just painted. It was so fun, and it’s still fun.
I still use a pallet knife, but not exclusively
I had such a great experience painting like this, that I use a pallet knife in almost every painting I make to this day. I will put a glaze over an image to accentuate the knife marks. I love the back and forth of thick and thin paint.
Limiting myself actually expanded my painting skills.