Not all black and white

For nearly three years I’ve had an intermittent blip series of colour images of things that are black and white. I am trying to do something that eludes me. My interest in the colour of white in particular comes, I think, from a 2002 Royal Academy exhibition, ‘Masters of Colour’. Just inside the door, not knowing what was in the exhibition, I glanced at the white dress in Renoir’s Portrait of a Young Woman (Young Lady in White).

I was about to move on when I looked again. And again. Then I stared. Having been emotionally evicted from art classes aged 13, I had never realised that white is other colours. That exhibition changed the way I see and since then I have often used Photoshop’s eyedropper tool to look at the varied colours of the pixels that constitute what seems to be one colour.

Yesterday, again, I was exploring white and, again, couldn’t make an image without a lot of colour. I ended up cheating and making it mono. Today I tried again (in Extras) then decided to have a go at black.

Of course I understand that figure needs ground, but I wish I could make an image that was more black. Or more white.

When I was playing with 'white' sheets 10 days ago, WhiskyFoxtrot gave me a link to Alison Watt's art, which I will pursue. Other links welcome.



Black and white in colour 61