I am working to prepare myself for my upcoming art residency in Georgia (a mere 3 months from now). Usually when considering a new series of paintings I look through photos of other artists’ work that I have saved to a file labeled “inspiration”. I find it helps to get me started, especially after an extended break from daily painting. Today the paintings of Franz Kline jumped out at me. He is my favorite artist. He worked mainly in black and white. The starkness appeals to me.
Though I usually have loads of color in my artwork, I often now start with black on a white canvas. Back in 2017 I did a short study in black and white. For several days I did small works on paper using marker and india ink. After a while, color seeped into my process and I decided not to fight it!
Take a look at one of my old blog posts from 2017, where I share how one of these simple b&w’s went on to become the finished painting, “Ombi-onyce ” – CLICK here to read the post.