Jekyll & Hyde

 Primary Wave

24" x 36" oil

(sorry for the poor image, better one soon)

I've been squeezing in paintings between teaching and dealing with life in general.  Boy there sure aren't enough hours in the day for me to fit in all I need to do!  But I am trying.

While there is a side of me that loves detailed paintings and drawings, there is also another side of me that equally loves creating large, more impressionistic paintings.  Palette knife painting fits in nicely by hitting my need to speed up the process and to have a looser feel to the work.

Detail from Primary Wave

In one of the workshops that I'm teaching, a demonstration was a wave.  Again, there were two versions:  one 8 x 16 that was detailed and the other 24 x 36 and full of movement, knife strokes and colour.  I'm sure there must be some psychological reason why I do this split, almost right brain/left brain or Jekyll and Hyde.  Perhaps I am cracking up after all! :)

I also bought these lovely little Italian painting knives from Utrecht, perfect for getting detail without smearing paint all over the place.  They have a lovely spring to them, I may well put a bunch of these on my Christmas list.

 Sea Memories

8" x 16" oil

So now that you've seen the wild, crazy wave, now you can see the sedate wave - Sea Memories.   Again in oil on canvas panel. Is it just me or do you have two different styles of painting?  And which do you prefer?

For me, I enjoy both, but there's something about the freedom that allows broad strokes and pulling colour out of the air (or in this case water) that takes the edge for me.  I think size has something to do with it as well.  Smaller picture planes seem to call for more carefully planned detail for me.

Jekyll and Hyde.  I may never change.