Winter Trees – Palette Knife Painting with Oil Paint

In the Winter Trees – Palette Knife Painting I was looking to capture the design elements I saw in the stark winter trees on a hill one cold January day. The lines of the trees and branches reminded me of old starved Dickensian figures. I felt that the trees echoed my own feelings at that moment. The feeling that we were locked in an endless cold winter without hope of spring. I used a palette knife to paint the snow and the rough texture of the tree bark.

 

 Winter Trees – Under Painting

I don’t usually start an oil painting with a sketch but rather with an under painting of oil paint that’s been thinned out with vegetable oil. The under painting for the Winter Trees was quickly done by brushing the sky with a coat of cerulean blue and adding a quick few brushes of a mixture of aquamarine blue and white to depict the shadows in the snow.

 Winter Trees – Palette Knife Painting the Trees

To begin painting the trees I set my palette up with Burnt Umber (dark brown), Burnt Sienna (light brown), black, white and Yellow Ochre (yellow brown) paint colors. I ran my palette knife through the colors without mixing them together. Scraping along the canvas with my knife down and around alternating between the edge of the knife and the flat side of the knife. Using the yellow ochre and white paint to show the highlights, and the brown and black paints to create shadows. I used the tip of the knife to scratch through the paint to make the texture of the tree bark.

 

Winter Trees – Palette Knife Painting the Snow

Painting the snow required a different palette knife painting technique. In the under painting I placed the shadows over a white wash of paint in an aquamarine blue. Some shadows were created by the light being blocked out by a snow hill and other shadows fell from the tree blocking out the light. Over the shadows under the snow hill I swept my palette knife loaded with titanium white paint to the side and then upwards. Emulating the texture of the snow hill. In the areas around the tree shadows I swept the white paint sideways and away from the shadow giving the wind swept effect to the snow.

Winter Trees – Palette Knife Painting the Sky

The sky needed a mysterious atmosphere to complement the stark trees. In my palette I used the cerulean blue, aquamarine blue and the titanium white. Dragging my palette knife sideways and then downward in a falling motion. Lifting the blue paint upwards reaching towards the sky to complement the vertical tree trunks. The ground reaching towards the sky led to a mysterious atmosphere that expressed my feelings on that cold winter day.