Glacial Rift

About the painting

Glacial Rift is a large contemporary artwork featuring four colours – black, white, copper and gold. This minimal palette has paved the way for a pretty exceptional painting in my opinion.

I have long believed that black and white are, quite possibly, the most expressive two colours there are. With that base assumption you could be mistaken for thinking that adding anything else to that would weather down their effectiveness and expression. And for the most part I would tend to agree.

However, the addition of gold and copper turn this principle on its head; resulting in a combination of colour that not only retains the extremes of light and dark but also pivots on another visual hook – texture.

The colour bridge principle

Now, you may think that I’m referring to something you can touch here – like using a gel or modelling paste to add a tactile feature. But what I’m actually referring to is a ‘colour texture’ and that may be a concept you’re not entirely familiar with – even though you are hard-wired to react to it.

A colour texture refers to the ability of a colour to bridge itself between two others, this creates a strange effect as it generally pulls both opposing colours into a state of balance and equilibrium. On their own they oppose but the ‘bridge’ colour connects them and adds to the composition without compromising the original two, if you follow my drift?

This is what the copper does so well. It winds its way through the painting to attach itself to both black and white elements to bring them all together.

Details and things

As for the way the painting looks well, there’s definitely a rift in there as you can see from the big black fissure that reaches across the canvas surface. It’s moody, vibrant and has so many small details in it I guarantee you’ll be staring at it for years and always finding something new that you’ve not seen before.

And its size means it will fill a big wall beautifully. Perhaps you have a stairwell with a contemporary wooden staircase or a feature wall that’s crying out for a monochrome artwork with a twist? This could be the one. It is utterly spectacular when you see it in the flesh.