This painting is called "Dark Romance" for the following reason:
Technically white is not a color, but, unless you mix white paint with colored paint, you can use white paint in the same manner and with the same purpose as colored paint and I will therefore refer to "the color white".
The last color I use in order to finish a painting usually determines much of the overall impact of the painting. Therefore, in the case of Marked Woman, I stopped working on the painting after I had been using the color white. The theme of Marked Woman is social stigma and the guilt-innocence dualism. Because the guilt part is rather obvious, to say the least, the innocence part emerged during a painting session in which I used the color white. I thought the contrast in opposite themes brought about a thematic balance, an effect I hadn't achieved before. I stopped working on the painting, even though the compositional balance still left something to be desired.
I also observed another effect. While the color white is associated with innocence and purity, I noticed it also highlighted the darker thematic properties of the painting, which I value, because I think that my art should always be rooted in reality: light besides darkness, beauty besides ugliness, etc..
Of course the color black is also dark in mood, but white can achieve a dark effect without being intimidating.
I think you know what I'm getting at: In Dark Romance the last color I used was white and it gave the painting something spooky. In combination with the painting's romantic quality, I thought its title was justified.
That was then (in 2008) and this is now. Dark Romance (I hate that title) is one of the paintings that, end of 2015, I'm working at. It can happen to any artist: you think it's ready, until you realize it's not. I'm thinking about renaming the painting, because the dark quality is gone and why would "romance" be in any kind of title? But I already have a misnamed painting and I don't want to create a series of that.....Oh Sorrow!...
98 x 72 cm
oils and acrylics on linen 2008
This painting is called "Dark Romance" for the following reason:
