Renaissance Black Series 1997-1998

Many of the concepts of music are with me to this day with harmony and melody being prime examples. Harmony in music builds the base upon which melody can soar to unencumbered expression and emotion. This for me correlates to a technique in painting called glazing where thin transparent colors are layered on top of each other to build darkness and depth.

In 1997 I discovered a technique used during the renaissance where they used many layers of paint to build a transparent, luminous black instead of an opaque, flat black. The colors used were yellow ochre, burnt sienna, terre verte green, alizarin crimson, prussian blue and aureolin yellow. In order to learn more about glazing and building a luminous dark I reduced my palette to these 6 colors. You can see the luminosity coming from the back instead of light highlights painted over the top.

Bakersfield Museum of Art
“Bryan Ida : Life of Change: A Retrospective”
September 28th, 2023 – January 6th, 2024