"Solitary Places"

($125.00....6" x 6".....oils on gessobord....floated on a linen mat in a custom frame)

"Peace resides in solitary places." The inspiration photo for this piece was taken near Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The blue of the water was piercing through the trees and everything was very quiet. We can all recall a place we've been that seemed to be the very essence of peace.

In my other palette knife pieces, I have painted the trunk and branches of the trees with the edge of a palette knife. Now I am taking a different approach and using a technique called "sgraffito". It is a technique that involves scratching or marking the top surface of paint to reveal a previous layer. In this case, I decided to paint the top two thirds of the piece with the dark brown color of the tree trunk first. I then painted the sky, the mountain of trees, and the water.

The trees were then revealed by lifting the top color with the palette knife. This is a much easier and convincing way of painting tree limbs. And because it is a "wet into wet" technique, the edges blend together and create a much softer edge.

The bottom third of the painting was painted with a light brown color so that my lettering would show through. It is still a bit hard to read, but I like the way it is integrated into the painting and the texture it creates. It can look very contrived to paint or adhere lettering on top of a painting that has some degree of realism.

It is much easier to incorporate lettering in a totally abstract or mixed media piece. But I am one determined gal, so I will continue on my road to discovery trying to integrate lettering and oils. And there you have it...just one more thing to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.