SOLD

6×6 oil on canvas When I walked into my studio today, I was thinking,”I want to paint something really colorful”. I set my coffee cup down on my glass palette and noticed the reflections. So, I put it on the stand, and clicked on the spot light. The colors in the background and ground plane were there from set-up for a previous study. I was intrigued by the colors that made up the cup, and decided to make a painting of the black cup, without using black.

I stay away from using pure black in my paintings, because it so often has a deadening effect. I think this happens because black doesn’t have a relative temperature. It’s kind of like me singing with a group. It doesn’t bring much to the harmony other than extreme contrast. ( I do reserve black for specific purposes which I won’t go into right now. Take a look at this bit from Robert Genn’s The Painter’s Keys if you’re interested in a multi-sided discussion of “the black arts”.) When I need “black” I prefer a mixture such as Permanent Alizarin with Ultramarine Blue. The combination will give gorgeous warm or cool darks that do their part to keep the whole color effect lively. This type of warm/cool “black” also mixes much more nicely with other hues to produce beautiful neutrals.