Painting with knives - Charles W. Hawthorne

Charles W. Hawthorne, detail of The Bath – Portrait of Emelyn Nickerson with Baby, 1915

Charles W. Hawthorne (1872 – 1930) was an influential American painter and teacher. In 1899 he opened the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which became an important American art school, and where each summer he taught plein air painting.

Charles W. Hawthorne, detail of The Bath – Portrait of Emelyn Nickerson with Baby, 1915

Some of his paintings from the nineteen-teens were lovely, luminous portraits using a lot of scumbling, such as you can see in these details of The Bath – Portrait of Emelyn Nickerson with Baby, from 1915. Many of these are portraits of common people, often doing ordinary things – not society portraits. In some portraits from this time you do see lines looking as though they were created with a palette or painting knife.

Charles W. Hawthorne, White Church, 1920

But by the 1920s, Hawthorne was using palette and painting knives to a much greater extent. Because of his influence as a teacher, he popularized their use. Here you can see how he used palette and painting knives to paint White Church; Town View, Provincetown; and Willows, all circa 1920.

Charles W. Hawthorne, Town View – Provincetown, 1920

Notice the broad, flat strokes of white for the building, and the wide, dark strokes of a fence below, contrasted with the narrow reddish fence posts and lines of the trees and tree branches, all looking distinctly un-brushy?

Charles W. Hawthorne, detail of Town View – Provincetown, 1920

Notice the interesting texture and feeling of spontaneity? Painting and palette knives can allow you to paint more quickly and spontaneoudly.

Charles W. Hawthorne, Willows, 1920

There is a local-ish connection here, too. Noted colorist Camille Przewodek, who lives in neighboring Sonoma County, studied with Henry Hensche, who was a student of and assistant to Hawthorne, and who continued teaching in Provincetown after Hawthorne's death. Although it may be tough to see a connection with these paintings, it is clearer when you see the colors Hawthorne began using later in the 20's. You can see more of Hawthorne's work here, at www.the-athenaeum.org.