MASTERCLASS: EXPLORING EXTREMES

Taking a leaf out of Matisse’s book, TERENCE CLARKE uses pure black and white pigments as part of his main colour scheme to create a vivid still life composition

- TERENCE CLARKE

When Henri Matisse first visited Pierre-Auguste Renoir at his Les Collettes home outside Nice, he showed him some of his work. Renoir was a little taken aback by the younger artist’s style but told him that he thought he used black beautifully. The comment goes against the widely held belief that the Impressionists were somehow allergic to using black in their pastel-heavy paintings. Indeed, one need only look at works by Renoir, Monet and their contemporaries in order to see that they used a great deal of black paint, particularly in accents. The idea that pure black and white are taboo is a misconception.

In this masterclass, I consciously tried to use both extremes of tone to enhance and dramatise the colour of a still life, using pure Process Black and Titanium White not only as accents but also as part of the main colour scheme. Each picture you paint is unique and the process you follow always involves some unexpected decisions. As you will see from the later stages, my decision to incorporate such bold extremes came about through trial and error as well as calculated judgement. I find that the best paintings always arrive out of this combination. The object of the exercise was to make a very ordinary subject appear vivid and colourful. I hope to show you that the use of black and white as colours in themselves was crucial to the overall effect.

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1. Establish a ground

Using a dilute mixture of Yellow Ochre and Vermilion Hue, I put a thin wash over the entire canvas to create a mid-tone ground. Doing this always helps me to judge the tonal values of mixes better from the beginning.