Home             Work Statement             Archived Paintings            Biography            Contact 

BLACK AS WHITE New Paintings by Eric Dever

Material

The methods and materials of painting are essentially the subject of my practice. I work on linen, burlap and canvas, sized or gessoed, all manifesting grades of absorbency and viscosity. Transparency and opacity are dependent upon paint quality. My four year investigation into the limits of Titanium and Zinc Whites, and Ivory Black, has given me a sense of mixing light itself with paint. But I do get substantial results this way.

Approach

I have been making concentric circles with a painting knife that radiate to the edge of the support. Expanding grayscales move from dark to light, bands vibrate subtly between tints revealing depth of space, darkness and luminosity. Acknowledgements to modernist painters are made along the way. Graded circles helped me return to the squares, the proportions are based on Albers’ homage; however execution is personal and idiosyncratic, the narrative, open.