Nada Khatib: Watch This Artist’s Palette Knife Nature Painting
Knowing the process behind your art makes it that much more special. We’re proud to partner with Nada Khatib, whose palette knife technique results in textured nature scenes full of color and depth.
Based in Toronto, Nada first discovered her passion for palette knife painting ever since she first saw Leonid Afremov’s work. She says she’s drawn to colorful and textured paintings, like Afremov’s, because “they’re just very lively, bold and it gives me life in a way that feels satiating and fulfilling”. With an excitement for experimenting with contrast and texture, palette knives allow her to freely create without always having a strategic plan. She sometimes uses a paintbrush to guide her through more elaborate designs; however, the palette knife is her main tool of choice for all of her work.
Read on to discover more about her technique, watch the artist in action, and see the final products in our gallery below.
For many of her pieces, Nada starts out by dropping piles of paint onto the blank canvas – this is somewhat random, but she mixes the colors strategically. She spreads them around with the knife, creating a thick background while developing texture. As she adds colors, she sets up more defined elements of the scene, like the sky. Flowers are added with graceful dollops of paint, using a knife to start the petals. This process makes them pop off the canvas with dimension, and allows her to add in the finer details afterwards.
While she adds flowers to most of work, she sometimes has a slightly different approach depending on what she’s creating. For a full blossoming field, she purposefully moves her wrist back and forth to make small dots of color across the canvas until filled in. Then, she uses a mix of other palette knives for the stems and other details. She adds in the most intricacies on the foreground, with those same thick petals as seen before.
No matter what type of landscape or subject is involved, her method remains the same; she uses those plentiful layers of paint for depth. Sometimes, she even uses a paintbrush in addition to the knife to help her with smaller details – usually when the knife is too big for those tiny crevasses. Additionally, depending on the amount of layers and details in the painting, she’ll use a variety of different sized palette knives, making for a satisfying piece of art.
As a result, her creative technique of thick paint, textured layers, and touches of colorful details in scenic displays can help add energetic and serene vibes to your space.
Check out our curation below to find a Nada Khatib print that speaks to you.
Want to see more? Click here to browse her full collection on iCanvas.