Western Expanse. Painting #67. Palette Knife Only Painting
Date Painted: April 27, 2019
16 x 20
Powerful clouds, rolling hills and winding river waters — This is painting #67 and was completed using mostly just a palette knife.
The Inspiration
I painted this piece just before heading out on a short work trip to New Mexico. To mark the occasion, I picked a western-themed Bob Ross episode to stream live on Twitch. I also thought it’d be a good time to try another palette knife-only painting
If you want to try this painting, you can follow along as I did in The Joy of Painting S6E11.
Materials
Colors
- Alizarin Crimson
- Bright Red
- Cadmium Yellow
- Dark Sienna
- Indian Yellow
- Midnight Black
- Phthalo Blue
- Sap Green
- Titanium Hwite
- Van Dyke Brown
- Yellow Ochre
Equipment
Notes From the Easel
What I really like about this painting is its impressionistic vibe. Painting mostly with the palette knife was a blast—and a bonus is way less cleanup afterward. Bob Ross was all about beating the devil out of that two-inch brush, which is fun if you’ve got the right setup. He had a big open space and a stand-up easel designed for that kind of action. Without that, cleaning brushes becomes a chore, and the fun drops off fast.
The painting also has a slightly trippy feel, especially with those huge clouds. I think the perspective might be a bit off, but honestly, it’s a happy accident that adds character. The grassy areas in front of the mountains turned out nicely, too—the mix of colors adds interest and a subtle sense of depth.
Challenges and Tips
One of the biggest challenges in this palette knife painting was creating depth in the distant mountain range. Without liquid white to help blend layers before starting the next, you have to work a little harder to get the shading just right on each layer. Reflections also become trickier since you can’t rely on liquid white to move the paint more easily.
Here’s a lesson learned: when you tone your canvas with the blue and thinner mix, make sure you’re working in a large, open space—this mixture tends to splatter, and I found that out the hard way. It also dries pretty quickly, so timing matters.
When adding the clouds with the knife, pay attention to their size and direction. The clouds should be smaller as they recede into the distance and larger as they come closer to create perspective. Alternatively, you can start the mountain range a bit higher on the canvas and paint it in front of the clouds—that pushes the clouds visually further back.
If you have any other questions about this unique Bob Ross style painting, drop them in the comments. Have you tried this one? How did it turn out?
I did put this on on YouTube as a time lapse. Check it out and you may catch a few bits on how I did things. These time lapses aren’t as fast as a lot of them out there so you might actually see some details.
As a reminder, this one and others are available to buy in my Art Shop. You can keep up with all the studio happenings throughout my social media.
Happy Painting!