Monday 4 June 2012

I'm not colour prejudiced but...

I'm not colour prejudiced but... I don't use black. Well, not until now. It's the sort of thing you are told in your teens, that black is unnecessary because you can make greys and dark colours by combining complimentaries. I took it all in and it served me well. I worshipped purple and prussian blue, amongst other deep hues.

When I was 17 or 18 and living in Pembrokeshire I was a big fan of the paintings of John Knapp-Fisher. He often portrayed bleak and angry coastal scenes using a combination of black, blue and orange, with all sorts of subtle shades of grey in between. I wrote an essay about my favorite artist, using these colours and got soundly told off in front of my fellow students, for writing something that was bizarre and illegible. It probably had a lasting psychological effect!

Well, I thought I'd live dangerously and try a black background in my most recent, strongly coloured portrait. I think it works well, thank goodness. It could be the beginning of a new Kisby oeuvre, or Black period...

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