No animals were hurt in this experiment. . .. .

I am learning to paint with a palette knife.  What was I thinking when I signed up for this? I have trouble cutting my meat, much less figuring out how to get paint on a canvas with a knife edge.

My Thursday morning painting class is taught by Mai Yap who wields a mean knife and is a wonderful artist.  I am totally intimidated and yearn for one of my trusty brushes.  My friend Sheila and I share the class with five confirmed palette knife painters who turn out incredible paintings while we struggle valiently on our side of the room.

Sheila painted a giant green pear this morning. When she was finished it looked good enough to eat.  In case you didn't know, fruit is very big when you're working with knives. I've already gone the apple and the pineapple route, so today I'm working on a kind of abstract horse.

What I really need to do is figure out what to do with the few thousand canvases that are piling up behind my desk and layered in the drawers where once upon a time I kept my fine china, long since transported up to Andrea.  OK, maybe not a thousand, but close to 50 at last count, and a dozen or more given away to family and friends. Prolific I am, that's for sure.

How you paint and what you choose to paint, I find, is very indicative of the painter's personality.  I'll bet Rembrandt had a dark side. One look at Van Gogh's "Starry Starry Night" and you can tell he had some heavy mental problems going on. Me, I live life in a hurry and paint in a hurry.  Every class I take I turn out three paintings to every one else's one.  If I could get paid by the piece I'd really be in the chips these days.

Here's today's adventure, on a 16x20 canvas. . .all done with knives.  OMG, I hope I didn't hurt the poor horse.
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