Back to Black

Barely Afloat feels both new and oddly familiar.

It’s been a while since I started a painting with a black background. Even when I do, I normally layer colour over it, allowing fragments of the black to come through and become part of the texture. This time I didn’t.

The funny thing is that doing less felt far less comfortable than doing more. I kept looking at all that empty, nearly-black space and wondering whether I should interfere with it.

Eventually I realised that was precisely why I shouldn’t.

So, after a long detour through colour, layers and increasingly complicated surfaces, apparently, I’m back to black.