K is for Knife

Sounds pretty gruesome until I rephrase and mention that I’m referring to painting knives 😀

Yet another project I have stirring at the back of my mind. I have impasto gel, modelling paste and now seven new painting knives. Yes, seven, I don’t do things by halves…especially when they are only $1 each – I didn’t say they were expensive painting knives 😀 They are on sale at www.micador.com.au . Generally Micador sells student and kids grade, but I have to say, those art products I have used like oil pastels and canvases I have been quite happy with and although I have yet to try their painting knives, how can I really lose out at $1 a pop? (They are also selling 18″ x 18″ canvases for $2.50 each…I’ve bought 30…::innocent expression:: )

Anyway, I digress.

I bought my first painting knife about a year ago on a whim. Mainly to use to mix paint and move acrylic media and the like around on my palette (yes, I know there are palette knives, but I like my little triangular painting knife). I found I quite liked using my little trowel, especially when it involved slapping paint around on the canvas. So I bought a couple more, but I’m mean to them and keep leaving them soaking in water…which leads to rust (I’m bad to my brushes as well…they just tend to disintegrate).

But today I received a lovely big box of canvases and my seven painting knives of all shapes and sizes.

And here they are, though I’ve just realised there is one missing and have just fished it out of the box. The two on the right are my poor mangled knives currently in use, the two on the left are unused ones I had stashed and the rest arrived in the mail today. All cheapies, but they do the job.

And what is that job? Well, as I mentioned above, I have all the ingredients for some heavy impasto painting and it is definitely something I would like to try.  And since I haven’t yet, I don’t have anything to show you of mine involving painting knives, but YouTube always has something to deliver.

A nice demo of painting knife technique. My subjects are likely to be different, but I will enjoy really getting into the thick paint and playing with it. Now I have the knives it could be any time soon 😀

Best wishes,

Liz