A Very Restricted Palette

Using a palette of white and grays has allowed Daniel Maidman to explore new properties in his artwork

Ever since I started painting, my primary goal has been to depict the figure as a living, breathing human being. I built up my anatomy and rendering, so I could make the figure coherent, cohesive and convincing.

I wanted the solid, dynamic figure to serve in the painting as the body does in real life: as the vessel of a unique person.

I struggled, refined, corrected and progressed for years, and then, suddenly, I did it. And I had absolutely no idea what to do next. I have found a rule in my work as an artist: Once I master something, I am not allowed to do it anymore. All the life goes out of it. So it was with the pure, isolated figure in painting.

I puttered around for another couple years, seeking a path forward. I still painted isolated figures, but I was trying new elements and techniques, seeking some way forward. At the start of 2019, I painted A World Without Shadows, a painting of fashion model Amy Hixson. I tried out the most limited palette I could find: only white and warm gray.

This really leapt out at me: the image was not quite of a living person—it was poised between life and sculpture. There was a massive, stony presence to it, a powerful feeling of light and shadow, of in front and behind—even though the entire image existed inside a very narrow range of contrast and color.