Monochrome Cobalt, 2024
Oil on Board
29 1/2 × 25 1/2 in | 74.9 × 64.8 cm
Frame included
“Monochrome Cobalt” is part of the Human Monochrome series—a suite of intimate studies using a restrained palette and focused gesture. Rendered in oil on traditional gessoed board, each piece explores the tension between absence and presence through technique and hue.
This work features a cobalt-infused background from which the figure quietly emerges. The form is sculpted entirely through subtractive brushstroke—warm sienna is first laid down, then selectively lifted to reveal contours and planes. Each removal of paint becomes a deliberate gesture, defining eyes, shoulders, and musculature by making space rather than filling it.
In the Human Monochrome series, cobalt isn’t just backdrop—it’s atmosphere, emotion, and space. Across the body of work, the shared visual language of single-hue fields and subtractive gestures creates a dialogue about identity stripped to its essentials. Here, every stroke—and every omission—carries meaning. The cobalt void holds the figure in a meditative balance, where color, material, and gesture become one.
This approach aligns with the history of monochrome painting—its capacity for formal reduction, spiritual depth, and meditative resonance —and positions the series within a lineage of artists seeking presence through absence.
This work features a cobalt-infused background from which the figure quietly emerges. The form is sculpted entirely through subtractive brushstroke—warm sienna is first laid down, then selectively lifted to reveal contours and planes. Each removal of paint becomes a deliberate gesture, defining eyes, shoulders, and musculature by making space rather than filling it.
In the Human Monochrome series, cobalt isn’t just backdrop—it’s atmosphere, emotion, and space. Across the body of work, the shared visual language of single-hue fields and subtractive gestures creates a dialogue about identity stripped to its essentials. Here, every stroke—and every omission—carries meaning. The cobalt void holds the figure in a meditative balance, where color, material, and gesture become one.
This approach aligns with the history of monochrome painting—its capacity for formal reduction, spiritual depth, and meditative resonance —and positions the series within a lineage of artists seeking presence through absence.