This post was inspired by my friend Mandy, a fellow artist. We were both high school art teachers in the same school district just outside of Seattle (she still is). Lucky for me, she was in Austin for a couple of days & I got to hang out with her this morning.
We had so much fun! We grabbed some chai & breakfast pastries from Upper Crust, then had a lovely chat at The WonderCraft trailer, which is only 2 doors down. It was so great to show Mandy the creative stuff I've been doing & hear about her latest art inspirations, too!
Both of the fruit paintings above were done by Mandy. She's just recently taken a class in palette knife painting & has fallen in love with the technique. It's a really fun way to create paintings in the impasto style, in which the paint is applied very thickly to create three-dimensional effects.
Back in the days when I used to paint a lot, I enjoyed using thick, goopy paint in my paintings, too. It created this luscious texture that always reminded me of cake frosting. Seeing Mandy's latest paintings & hearing about how much she enjoyed that class got me feeling nostalgic for the paint tubes I rarely squeeze anymore and the easel that is leaning against my work room wall, all sad & neglected. Maybe I'll paint something this afternoon...
Here are some more palette knife paintings I love, found on Etsy (& available for purchase there, at quite reasonable prices). As you can see, the thickness of the paint varies widely from artist to artist...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydJPCEruAKomKt7ft4wdzJ-7Q2NBYANt4eQ-O4fLV13Jtdab13acvfQgpKN6feRqjACPAcFbGteCzzTaxVo0HR-6Nrd43C2iMwZkzB_kuKv9fmh8VvablR0zKjfaDhoIJ5Hc5wHi6tK4/s400/il_430xN.100328658.jpg)
The smooshiest, goopiest paintings I could find are by the artist above, Beata Sasik. She really lays it on thick! Crazy, huh? I love it!
What do you think of impasto painting? Do you like the three-dimensional qualities of it, or do you prefer flatter, smoother paintings? Feel free to leave links to your favorite painters in the comments; I'd love to see 'em!