Secret of the black canvas

I was in Prague a couple of years ago and came upon the Galerie Jakubska that showed the work of the Ukranian artist Alexndr Onishenko who has now settled in the Czech Republic.
Onishenko's style is palette knife work applied to a black canvas and the "Secret of the Black Canvas" is the title of the book about his life and work.
My recent night paintings of coastal scenes have all been produced on a black canvas, here are a couple of samples.

    

Small paintings

In a number of recent exhibitions I've noticed how there seems to be an increase in small paintings. This was especially true of the International Art Fair held at the Royal College of Art in London a couple of months back and it was interesting to see just how much a small painting ,7"x 5"or so,captured the imagination as much as a large 3 or 4 foot canvas. Maybe it's the restricted size that focuses the artist to "tell everything" on a smaller scale, I've just started a series of small acrylics and found this to be the case. Let me know what you think.


Lavender fields - Acrylic on canvas 7"x 5"



New York

Our apartment in Midtown Manhattan

I'm just back from a few days in New York. We stayed in a "brownstone" apartment on West 47th Street. The city is just as manic as ever and with 35degrees heat, air -conditioning is essential.
Sampling the delights of Central Park, the Staten Island ferry and Washington Square, I made notes and sketches along with photographs to produce some "Manhattan" images.


Cruising in the yellow cab.......



Skyscraper reflections



Leaving Manhattan for Staten Island





Sketches and notes

 I made a visit to the Guggenheim. When I was in New York previously it was closed for renovation, so only having seen the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice I was keen to see the iconic building.
The current exhibition is "Art of Another Kind"abstract art from 1949- 1960 featuring all the big names in both American and European art - highly recommended!