Stylistic and technical analysis of plein-air painting carried out with the help of the palette knife

Plein-air painting has a long tradition that provides the artist with direct contact with nature and consists in transposing onto a support (canvas, paper, etc.) the sensations and visual-figurative emotions obtained in front of the motif. In this paper, we will highlight the technique of oil painting, made on canvas with the help of a palette knife, which offers us special technical and technological pictorial possibilities, by rendering the freshness of colors, through special effects and textures that you cannot normally obtain with a brush. The thick and bold layers of paint/color applied with a palette knife can be combined with the delicate traces left by the brush, so as to obtain a complete technique. Another advantage of the painting technique made with the palette knife is the possibility of applying layers of paint even if the previous ones have not dried, something that cannot be done with the brush and allows the work to be finished "alla prima"62 . With the help of the palette knife you can create precise or abstract spots of color, in various shapes, on a clean canvas or over other layers of color previously applied. Since it is not necessary to dilute the paint, the color will be more intense, vibrant and bold. And if too much paint is applied, you have the possibility to scrape off the excess with the blade of the knife, without losing the intensity of the color. The palette knife is an ideal tool for creating both architectural landscapes and abstract art, allowing you to achieve the illusion of a three-dimensional texture, as well as the texture itself. By gently touching the palette knife on the painting surface, we can imitate the structure of different materials such as wood or freshly cut grass, and vice versa, by applying it roughly we obtain textures that protrude beyond the canvas. This three-dimensional effect gives a special and original air to the works. At the same time, using the palette knife technique in plein-air leads to the formation of an original artistic vision and develops knowledge, skills, abilities and technical and aesthetic aptitudes, which are educated by approaching all aspects of the artistic concept, from the development of the works to their transposition into material. V. Pâslaru establishes that the relationship of the plastic artist/painter to nature and to oneself as a relationship of knowledge is given by the subject-object relationship (plastic artist-environment). Since human existence is unitary in its diversity, the relationship of knowledge of man with the world (the external universe) and with himself (the internal/intimate universe) is manifested in various forms of knowledge, namely in the artistic-aesthetic one. The researcher also mentions that artistic - aesthetic knowledge is a special type of knowledge, achieved through (emotional) experience - imagination - thinking - creation (artistic), oriented towards self-knowledge and the creation of the intimate human universe. By associating and identifying the term education with the term knowledge, the author deduces/observes that knowledge forms and develops the human being, enlightens him/her, and education is related to knowledge, accompanies it and achieves it, because everything that man does is done for man throughout his life, having a consequence, an educational result. Within the plein-air study, we also emphasize a correct and efficient development of visual perception, where we specify that by applying pictorial techniques and technologies made with the help of a palette knife, the most important structures and models of the artistic painting of/from nature are acquired, and the perceptual-visual and aesthetic system is familiarized, which is impossible without the sensations produced directly by contact with nature. Quoting Ștefan Coman, we mention that if you want to express your feelings, you must paint from nature. You can express the emotions you feel in the natural environment with the idea that they will live, because if you hide them, they will die. Plein-air works manage to surprise us with the multitude of tones, subtly rendered by shadows and reflections, especially those of water, obtained with the help of a palette knife. Being in the bosom of nature, where inspiration for music and painting prevails, the plastic artist who does not paint the earth, the peasants and the sky will not find movement towards the universe. Working in plein-air tests the artist, putting to the test his capacities for receiving color, vibrant light and shadow. The choice of subject and the way of interpreting nature is individual and attests to the character, temperament and mastery of the painter. To create works in/at pen-air, is not necessary a specific established technique, each painter can use an individual working process, according to temperament and skill, with warmer or cooler colors, depending on the subject/motif. Moreover, in painting, technique should not be considered an end in itself, the processes/techniques should lead to a valuable artistic execution, to durability and, ultimately, to the clearest possible expression of an image or subject. The greatness of a painter lies not only in his talent, in the subjects and visions of the world reflected in canvases/paintings, but also in the ability to take from what is precious in his own soul and transmit it to both the viewer/receiver and his disciples, future plastic artists. From the above, we mention that the technique of oil painting, performed on canvas, with the help of a palette knife, includes the plastic artist's previous experience, as well as his ability to visually perceive nature/the surrounding environment, to easily handle the instruments, through which they manifest themselves in the form of representations and knowledge, developed through various processes and psychic phenomena such as thinking, language, feeling, will, own interests, etc., which certify the level of education and culture achieved, as well as the continuous practice/exercise of these values of the plastic artist's personality.