Giving a shot at Japanese black ink...

The production of a realistic black ink image on rice paper has been a goal of mine for a while. Last week, I dug up a high quality Japanese ink stick and an ink stone to see how this method (grinding my own ink) compared to the use of regular liquid black ink. I wanted to have more control on tonal values, something I find hard to achieve with liquid ink. I also wanted to produce better greys.

Using a multilayered approach, I produced this painting on rice paper, which I glued to raw canvas as a second step...

The resulting image exceeded my expectations. In the future, I want to intervene on these black and white renditions using bold color passages, without having to overuse paint in an attempt to mask imperfections that should not be there in the first place. The clash between a perfect black and white image and bold paint is for me the ultimate in contrast...

Note: I have used fine charcoal or soot directly on raw canvas with some success, but I find black ink on rice paper to be superior. Moreover, textures can be obtained while mounting the paper onto canvas

Soaking in art...

In late September early October, a couple of weeks was spent in Amsterdam and Belgium visiting the family and taking advantage of museums (Rijksmuseum, Van gogh in Amsterdam) and art exhibitions (Dali in Liege, private galeries)...

Back to my art, I did an experiment framing one of my recent works using a plexiglass casing. This could definitely be an interesting avenue with a number of my collage paintings.

The white shadow II - Zeroing in on a pictorial vocabulary for the near future, and perhaps the long run...

I restated my previous painting with more freedom in mind, execution wise...

... riding the wave of chaos with Chinese black ink and acrylics on rice paper glued on raw coton/linen canvas. Freehand drawings have been added, letting them drip haphazardly. Moreover, I did away with the background, letting shapes come out in a bold fashion. Lately, I've returned to using charcoal on raw canvas, but in a way, nothing beats Chinese black ink.

This rendition is more "white shadow" then ever! For the first time, I seem to want to live with this character for a while... the perfect blend between two races, the inter-connectivity between humans and animals, the concept of the threatened human race, in a nutshell, concepts that speak to me more than ever!

"The white shadow"... probing deep into my inner self and letting it come out!

As I'm approaching my tenth year of experimentation with acrylics, I feel the need to let go, in the spirit of "now or never"...

Finding my own voice is of the essence! This has been my artistic saga... and maybe there is a glimpse of hope...

White knuckles in Malawi... trying to use my usual vocabulary in a slightly different way!

The summer is a slow period for me with regard to my art. Nonetheless, I completed this painting piggybacking on my approach with the previous painting...

I want to use more lines, mingling drawing and painting in my renditions...

The summer is a time for reflection for me, letting nature speak to me...

Pursuing my series... "Saving Ivory"...

This painting was totally exploratory...

I took the opportunity to explore drawing and painting in a manner I never did before. For this one, I also used fluorescent pink in my color mixes, which makes this painting difficult to photograph!

It has been postulated that staining elephant tusks pink could prevent poaching (however, it's never been implemented, but I like the idea). With this painting, I'm extending the concept to African albinos! I paint driven by exasperation...

"Ebony and ivory - crucify me" - the start of a new series!

Over the last few weeks, I have worked diligently on my last painting until I was relatively satisfied with the imagery...

I already have an idea for the next one!