Untitled. Oil on canvas, 2009. Chiaroscuro technique of light and dark.

Starting up this blog has sent me down a long path looking through old works and photographs. It's easy to get carried away sometimes! I came across this oil piece I did for my final exam in my last year of school. Things have moved a long way since then but this was a nice reminder of the journey my art has taken since I was 18. Also a reminder of new beginnings. Who knows where this new blogging adventure will take me.

Essentially this project was about the study of 'chiaroscuro', which is a word for how dramatic light and dark are used in a painting. It was a technique developed during the Rennaissance and used a lot by painters such as Rembrandt and Caravaggio. I've always enjoyed the use of contrast and also why I like black and white photography. To give you an idea about the meaning behind the painting, I was trying to create a picture that represented the racist nature of our history by placing a white skinned subject in the light and a black skinned subject in the shadows. Two people that live together on one planet but have been separated by the harsh contrasts of human nature.

I didn't actually have enough time to finish it as I'd like to have done but was still happy with the results nonetheless. Let me know what you think! Oil paint is a great medium and I still feel I haven't fully explored its use.