Thabisa Limited Edition print from the Shades of Grey series by Peter Pharoah

From Abstracts, to Portraits or even African wildlife, experimenting with texture, colour and style has always been a hallmark of my approach to painting.

Shades of Grey

Many of my recent portraits were created using bright colours, but I decided to venture into uncharted territory experimenting with a monochomatic palette on a familiar subject.

I enjoy the challenge of black and white photography, which formed the basis for my concept. Using lamp black with varying degrees of dilution I created subtle shades of grey while allowing the white of the canvas to accentuate the lighter areas.

Once the basic features were in place, I expanded on the concept by incorporating traditional printing colours of Cyan (blue), Magenta (Pink) and Yellow to highlight just one feature of the face; the lips. While working in the advertising industry we were schooled in the discipline of colour reproduction so for me this series pays homage to my background as an art director and illustrator.

I love the challenge of creating artworks in black and white, so sometimes I paint Abstracts and even African wildlife such as Duma which is a stunning black and white portrait of a cheetah in profile.