Duo Chromatic Cross-Hatching. A Contradiction to Photo Luminism?
The majority of the work I’ve done to date has been very colorful. A few pieces have been gold and black (Gold Wire and Shades) and one called Stripes was basically black and white, but for the most part they’ve been almost terminally colorful. I like bright colors and always have. In my first blog I mentioned how even while still in a pram, I would hold brightly colored cellophane candy wrappers up to my eyes so I could change my perception of the world. It was amazing. I still do it. And if you haven’t done it, you should try! It is the coolest.
So ‘What’s all this Duo Chromatic stuff then?’ I hear you ask. Well, it all boils down to the type of lights I use to create my images with the Photo Luminism technique. With the advent of LEDs, a white that is far whiter than the warm incandescent light bulbs we all love is now readily available. Generally we don’t like it because it’s too stark. You’ve seen houses decorated at Christmas with both types and frankly they don’t mix well. For the most part the older bulbs convey a feeling of warmth and goodwill, while the bright white, almost blue-ish LEDs appear cold and callous. But they have their uses, especially for me. Using some of my tried and true Photo Luminism techniques combined with the new LED technology has provided some very cool (excuse the pun) new images indeed and they are pretty much black and white.
‘So what’s the cross-hatch bit then?’ You all know the number or hash sign: #. That’s a simple example of cross-hatching. Imagine an entire picture created using that style. There are artists who do this by hand. It’s incredibly intricate. For me it’s a little simpler and considerably less time consuming but the images, almost architectural and some even Escher-esque in nature, are quite mind boggling. The only difference is that I reverse the colors, using white cross-hatching on a black background. Here is one example to pique your curiosity. “More shall be fifth-coming” as my dear Dad used to say!
