The palette knife is so experimental that I come up with ideas I never would have thought of on my own if I hadn’t been painting with it. 

This is the first in a set of experiments I'm making, using shape and pattern to create interest in an otherwise plain area.  I have captured a number of very simple skyscapes that feature beautiful gradients, but don't have much else going on in them. 

A painting of the sky with no clouds in it would be kind of boring, but the gradient at the end of the sunset is so beautiful, I wanted to find a way to paint it while also making it interesting.

While I was painting "Canyon Color", I discovered that I could create interesting effects with a straight, rectangular knife by repeating the shapes that the knife created, and communicating form with the direction of the knifestrokes.  I could also make really defined geometric shapes with this specific knife, such as squares, rectangles, and diamonds.

This sparked an idea, that I could use this knife to easily make geometric patterns, and I could add these shapes to areas in the composition that could use something extra to add interest.  

I have always really loved geometric shapes in textiles.  Painting triangles, curves and certain angles would be difficult with this knife, but weave patterns show that you can make any shape using just straight vertical and horizontal lines.  So, I decided to use the patterns from woven textile designs to create beautiful geometric shapes.

Bob Ross likes to talk about happy accidents.  The palette knife is all about happy accidents!  Happy accidents turn into exciting new ideas. 

It’s a kind of creativity that feeds itself.  If my knives could talk, they would say “hmmm, okay let’s just roll with it!”