Black Paintings
between 1998-2002
Crazy Jane
oil on canvas, (c) Pip DickensPrivate Collection
In Peril
oil on canvas, (c) Pip DickensDon't Believe in Signs
oil on canvas, (c) Pip DickensYou're So Vain
Oil on canvas, (c) Pip DickensShow More
Black Series
Although black, these oil paintings shimmer with refracted light in order to create their 'colour'. In a wholly perverse manner they insist on the presence of light in order to be read. In ambient, or natural daylight, their ‘mood’ fluctuates. With trained spotlights, a variety of dramatic coloured refractions are possible.
Notions of the Baroque underpin these works with particular reference to the light--dark allegories that abound in literature eg. Milton's 'Paradise Lost' and also the tenebrist/chiaroscuro artists - for example Caravaggio and Zurburan. They also draw on the music of the period in particular librettos from operas by Handel, Rameau and Purcell.