The Dance Fantastique

To sit and stare at a figure from my  perspective, my visual view is so very hard to describe.

"Why black and white?"

Why ?

 Its the shadow dance.

I could stare at someones face and let the details sit amidst a blur of blobish spots and holes, but i choose to not see that. Tonight as i sit and talk with friends and smile i watched the shadows play and dance on all of them.When my models stand even as they are still they play, the shadows boldly sit and wrap around and they dance against the light.

The light becomes less important, the shadows become bolder and fluid.I quickly go to sketch  the play at hand. First i draw the whole figure ,proportions ,like the steady blueprint of a wonderful building. Then once that foundation is down i begin to trace the lines of the shadows as they  played. With every twist losing portions of face, arm, leg, but showing still amazing contrast of whats left for me.

See to describe my black and white art and why i paint without color is this,..

I don't paint the figure,
i paint the shadows,

 the figures re-emerge from that.

So next time you look at one of my paintings  look more at the flowing wisps of the black which appear to surround the figure.
Then you'll see what i see,
they don't surround them at all,

they dance.