The Road Now Taken

‘The Road Now Taken’ is an original oil on canvas. 45.7 X 45.7 (18”x18”) - $700 Framed.

This piece was my first ever piece created solely using a palette knife.

It’s funny to think of that now… as I LOVE the palette knife and suspect much of my art will be forever changed with the introduction of this little tool into my repertoire. It allows me to be more fluid and less constrained in my approach. Having less rigidity in our approach is certainly something many of us can benefit from in life!

I’ve been inspired by seeing other artists on Instagram using all kinds of implements to make their art. 

It makes me think back to a time when I was watching my mom prepare dinner. I had purchased her this new dicer that allowed her to swiftly smash the top of the tool and more quickly dice your vegetables, nuts, etc.

I had bought one for myself and have been using it for a year or so when my mom came to Australia to visit me and saw me using mine. 

She exclaimed, ‘oh! Is that how you use it?’

It had never occurred to her that you could move it around on the chopping board - she instead trying to fit all of her vegetable into a small 5 cm diameter - obviously very much constraining her and removing any real benefit from using the implement. 🙃

I realise now this really isn’t all too dissimilar to that. You know what you know - and sometimes it’s hard to look outside of the ‘rules’ you’ve imposed on yourself.

Back in the 80’s and 90’s when I started painting (my Mom enrolled me in my first oil painting class when I was 12 or so) - I was taught to use a paintbrush… Bob Ross used a paintbrush… and Mark Anderson (my college professor) use a paintbrush - and up until Instagram - all I knew was a paintbrush. And therefore I used a paintbrush!

Now that I have started using using the palette knife I hardly want to go back to the paintbrush! (Who knows what will come next – but I’m suspect some play with mixed media is in my future, too.)

But I digress… 

Let’s talk about the emotions behind this painting.

I titled it ‘The Road Now Taken’ as it was started early Jan ‘24; my first day back painting after the Christmas holidays. 

At my husband’s suggestion, we had just made the decision to renovate our holiday home to add an artist’s studio for me to paint from.

I was feeling very much loved, supported and excited about this new road and this new future.

I had been working on ‘Happiness is a Field of Colour’ for a few months – but I wasn’t feeling it in that moment to work on that painting. Rather, I picked up a new blank canvas and started with the view in front of me – (which has now become ‘McCrae’s Promise').

The thing with oils is – you can only put so much paint down before you have to stop or you’ll end up with a muddy mess. 

Often times when I’m feeling creative flow, I don’t want to stop even though my painting needs me to - so I start another painting. At any time, I usually have 2-3 on the go.

This painting came as my second painting on that day. It embodies an eruption of joy, happiness and excitement about this new direction that I was wholeheartedly throwing myself into.

I love bright colours - and with the palette knife, I’m less enticed to blend them - keeping the richness of the pigment. I’ve chosen the turquoise, pinks,  whites and lime green to represent the joy I was feeling. 

What music was I listening to when I created this piece, you ask?

As most of my close friends will know – I’m a bit weird when it comes to music. 

I love listening to it - love singing & whistling to it – and usually know 75% of the words… yet I’m not a huge fan of concerts per se and I almost never know who I’m listening to or the names of the songs 😝 at least, not since we moved across from CDs. It makes me dreadful at choosing songs to accompany my Instagram posts 🙃 or picking songs out at karaoke. 

All the said, I do love listening to music while I paint. 

Here’s the track I was listening to on this particular day. This track gets a lot of air time on Spotify for me… ‘Acoustic Chill Mix’.

Do you have a favourite soundtrack,? If you do and you like my art, contact me about painting an abstract commission from a palette of your choosing whilst listening to the music that you love. (That is, so long as it’s not jazz 🙃… and my preference is painting joyful pieces 😘).