In between the new work I’ve been featuring here as of late, I’ve also been continuing to produce a few other pieces of my black and white ( or gray, as I sometimes refer to it) work. As I said before, I enjoy the challenge these pieces present in trying to create emotion and feeling without the use of color. No deep reds or yellows to warm up the scene and give it an inviting glow. Only the composition and lines and shading to give the piece its lifeblood.
Oh, there is a touch of color. The most recent group features red and yellow sun/moons which gives this group a great sense of continuity between the individual pieces. The tryptych shown above, an image about 7″ tall by 18″ wide on paper that I’m calling The Warming, is an example. In some of my gray work I have reserved the touch og contrasting color for the crown of a red tree but with this group I wanted the color to be only in the orb of light in the sky. So with this piece the tree has gray foliage.
I like the feel of a tryptych, the way the three images are compartmentalized and relate to one another. Each stands alone but is strengthened by the next and the sum of the three is infinitely more compelling than any one alone. Thi breaking apart of the scene also brings a further sense of remoteness that I feel in the work, a feeling that is aided by the removal of color in the foreground. The dark grays create a somber now from which the viewpoint originates and the yellow of the sun/moon creates a more optimistic future which approaches.
I’ve got plans for another in this series with four or five asymetrical segments creating different visual weights. I’m still working it out in my head but will show it here- if it works as I’m envisioning it.
Redtree Times 