Abstract trees - Fun with a palette knife

Inspiration piece

This was actually a little while back. I was flicking through Pinterest - always lots of imaginative ideas there - when I saw an abstract that caught my eye (at right). I loved the colour, the texture and the execution and also thought this would be an interesting project for our class. I broke the process down into stages, starting by covering the canvas with gesso. We chose a limited palette of three to four colours, and applied them quickly Into the wet gesso to create a soft background glow of colour. Next were added 'trees', created by dragging a palette knife to evoke a sense of spruce tree. Finally, students chose a dark colour they felt would compliment their painting. This colour was used for foreground tress, shoreline rocks and any other small accents. Trunks were scraped out of the painted trees, as well. Finally, to gove a sense of water surface, lines were added to the bottom of the painting. This class was run for both students and adults, with great results from all!

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My piece - a little less 'fiery' than the inspiration piece...

Aren't they lovely!