When colour isn’t your main focus or desire you need to think about shapes and forms to carry a message. So if you like that idea and generous dose of angles then this may interest you greatly.
225cm x 80cm (89″ x 31″)
That’s about it really! No, I’m only kidding. I’m sure you’d like to know more about it so allow me to enlighten you.
I like to challenge myself from time to time. I believe it’s a healthy way of being able to push your own boundaries and stretch your creativity. After all, necessity is the mother of invention right?
Recently I tasked myself with creating something angular with just two colours (and a little help from white and silver). So the dominant players here are a deep, rich cream and a dense matt black. I’ve talked previously on how black is one of those difficult tones as it has such a finality to it. I really am very careful with it these days.
Basing a composition around two basic colours means I have to be extremely careful with how much of each to put on and in what forms and in what locations. This absolutely has to be right for the painting to succeed.
So I decided on three basic areas of black – one on each side and one in the centre. So far so good. In addition, however, I also thought it would be a good idea to shift the outer features of black into opposing corners; it has the effect of adding height to the canvas and also adds little tension.
The other reason I did it is to accent the angled theme, which is prevalent throughout the whole painting. So not only are individual paint applications angled but the generalized areas of paint are also slightly angled too. Adding to this are small off-shoots and elegantly blended forms that bring a little playfulness to the painting.
Behind every good story there are heroes that never get mentioned or that rarely get talked about. In this artwork that credit belongs to silver and white.
I’ve used a shimmering metallic silver for two reasons. Firstly because it’s gorgeous but secondly (and most importantly) it levels out the extremes of light and dark. I am a big believer in adding complimentary tones to even the most extreme paintings I create. This is because, at the end of the day, you have to live with them on a daily basis.
Doing something that’s mad, ridiculous or shocking is fine but would you really want to come down stairs each morning and see something that explosive as you switch on your coffee machine? See my point?
You can do something different, unique and expressive and still feel good as you walk past it. The sign of a good contemporary artwork is its ability keep giving but not to smack you in the face a hundred times a day.
As is usual for me I put detail in all my work. You have to give yourself the opportunity to get in close and have a proper look of course but it’s all there in one form or another.
I’m a big fan of angles I admit. I like the fact that there are rules to them so it allows you to put in a structure. But I also like the idea of playing with them and pushing them to form new shapes. It’s good to break some rules now and and again; hence the odd random white squiggle here and there.
I was tempted to go mad with them but there has to be a compromise I guess.
There’s no way the photos do this painting justice, despite my best intentions. If, like me, you’re a fan of neutral colour schemes and monochromatic colour ranges then drop me a line and let’s see what your feature wall is going to look like with this on it.
