Knife Attack!

Last night, I did two paintings: one was very small (2" x 2 3/4"), which I overworked and the other was slightly larger 4" x 4' and turned out better, being stronger and abstracted.

I painted both of the paintings with a palette knife--no brushes!

I hunched over the smaller sized painting for almost an hour and consequently put in too much detail,

then, as I was packing up, the sun dropped even lower over the hills and the sky turned a burnt orange with some reddish scatttered patches; the hills went from a greyish-orange to a blue color.

I couldn't walk away from that!

I dug through my pack and pulled out a 4" x 4" wooden art panel and began slashing at it with my palette knife.

At first I didn't even care whether or not the painting worked out, but when it did begin working my main concern was to stay out of the way and let it just develop.

Finally, I reached the point where I dare not touch it and I knew I was done.

I packed the finished paintings into a cigar box and rode away.

Behind me the hills had turned into dark sillouttes and there was only a slight pinkinsh color in the Prussian blue sky.

The air smelled of mint, lavender, and freshly cut hay and grass.

I felt happy as I rode my bike with my paintings packed safely on the back. Happy that I had decided at the last minute to ride out into the West Eugene Wetlands to paint the sunset.



The first, smaller painting.







The second painting.