58 Artists Magazine May 2019
to arriving at my mental picture. So,
I’d do a second painting.” And then a
third and a fourth. “I often find that
my first painting is tight and tends to
be more cautious than I’d like,” he con-
tinues. “It also tends to be more
geographically correct and less visually
stimulating. The subject at this stage
often dominates my creative thought.”
It’s by repeating a motif that Knight
really taps into its potential. “There’s a
sense of freedom you have if you’re
doing a second or third or fourth
painting of that same scene,” he says.
“One could be vertical, one horizontal,
one small, one large. You can intensify
the color, the tone. There are so many
options. It’s so liberating, and if you
believe that not every painting isdestined for the gallery wall, then
you’re painting purely for yourself.”
In his depictions of the Australian
bush, Knight follows in the footsteps
of the great Australian Impressionists
of yesteryear, most notably Arthur
Streeton (1867–1943) and Tom
Roberts (1856–1931), whose sun-
drenched landscapes are seminal
works in the canon of Australian art.
While Knight employs a similar high-
key palette and shows a deftness for
depicting the heat haze and arid tones
of the bush, he does so with a panache
and emotional immediacy that sets
his work apart as decidedly contem-
porary. It’s as though Streeton veered
out of his lane and collided head-on
with Willem de Kooning.Neutral Bay, Sydney Harbor
oil on board, 25x48PAINTING FAST
Knight’s large-scale paintings facilitate
a bold, gestural approach, an invita-
tion to paint “off the shoulder.” To
that end, he has added a vertical mast
to his French box easel, an extension
that allows him to secure large panels
safely. Knight has painted works
measuring up to 4x8 feet on location,
in which case, he uses two easels.
To say that Knight paints quickly
on location is an understatement.
I’ve watched his instructional DVDs,
and, especially at the block-in stage,
I had to remind myself that I wasn’t
watching a time-lapse video. A good
painting, in Knight’s opinion, “should
be like a good speech—short, sharp
and succinct.”