Saturday, April 21, 2007

Painting On Black

I'm just checking in - I've spent the past few days kindof stepping away from the paints and looking for inspiration. I found some of that today and you'll be seeing a lot of that as soon as I start up painting tomorrow.

Allow me to fill in the gap with answering to why I paint on black. I can remember, as a young girl just starting to draw, I preferred using chalk or white pencil on dark paper. In my early 20's, I always used pastels or colored pencils on dark paper. Years later, when I started to paint again, I used acrylic on black. Oddly enough, I guess I've always preferred to do it that way in whatever I used. I guess early on I realized even a dull still-life or human skin 'emerged' out of the dark and made for a more interesting piece. I thought so anyway.

Another crucial point, for me, is I can see the colors more accurately when I paint on black - what goes down stays down. The result is that I rarely go back and rework any of it, which makes for a quicker process, which is a good thing.

5 comments:

Tony Vassallo said...

Karin,
thank you for sharing why you paint on black. You said you have also used acrylic. With acrylics fast drying feature why do you choose oils?

Karin Jurick said...

I chose to paint with oils the first day I had a separate studio - it was something that I wanted to learn after seeing a friend's work months before. It didn't matter that it was a slower drying process - I tend to start and finish a painting in one sitting, probably a habit from using acrylics - but I quickly learned that oils were meant for me. There's a luminosity that I never got before - the blending was easier - the color combinations are endless. Aside from all that, I think I had a firm idea in the beginning of how I wanted to paint - to get away from the hyper-realism and stay loose - and most of all to use oils for what they were meant for.

Wanda Knight said...

Karin, I enjoy looking at you daily painting. They are an inspiration to me. you are my hero. I am just getting back into painting after several years absence. I sold my custom framing shop at the beginning of the year and I am trying to complete a painting a day. I would like to know what you use to cover you canvases with black.
Thank you, wbk

Karin Jurick said...

Wanda - I use black gesso on the masonite. Thank you for asking and for the kind words. I appreciate it.

Wanda Knight said...

You mean there is a black gesso? Thank you for responding. and i love the little princess you did today.
wanda