Black without black


• 2009
• Oil on canvas
• 60 cm. x 80 cm. (23.62 in. x 31.50 in.)
• Available

Black without black | Oil on canvas

One of my habits is that I question everything. This has gotten me into quite a bit of trouble before, but it has also proven to be a very valuable way of self-improvement.

Since I never had any form of artistic training one of the things I keep questioning is my technique. I know how to handle oil paint and all the related products - that's mere technical knowledge, the pure chemistry of painting.
There are hundreds of ways to apply the paint to the surface, from brushes to pallet knives, old rags, using your fingers, hell.. you could even use sticks and stones to scrape the paint.
The amount of linseed oil or turpentine used makes a huge difference to how the paint reacts to brush strokes or other manipulation. So enough to experiment with. It often feels like this life is not going to be long enough to even come close to paint everything that's in my head.

I usually stick to brushes. Different kinds of brushes, but always brushes.
I felt like doing something completely different yesterday. I had a painting that I had already done in 3 different versions and even different sizes, all of them were nice. Some people seemed to like them very much, but for me they weren't up to standards. It felt like they were only 90% right.

90% tends to be enough for most things I do. My art is different - thát has to be 100%. Always.
Therefore I couldn't get these paintings out of my head. The best one I hung by the front door so I would see it every time I walked in, hoping one day I would find out what's wrong with it.

Yesterday it struck me. It needed 'softening' the brush strokes were causing some sort of chaos on the canvas, making it a lot harder to see the global image.
I still used brushes to apply the base layers onto the canvas - trying not to waste any valuable time. But a soon as that was done, the rest was finished using my hands, fingers and some coarse cotton rags..