Is value as important as colour in painting?

I thought I’d show you what’s been going on in my painting studio lately

Those of you that know my story, will know that I went to Art college in the UK in the 90's but because of the self directed nature of the course, I've always felt that there were so many gaps in my knowledge about how to paint.

So, over the last couple of months I’ve been delving into things that I usually just rely on instinct for. I've been reading about composition, about focal points and colour theory. I’ve also been  looking at my favourite works of art and analysing why they work.

I came across an article about how value -  light and dark, can be as important as colour.

I found this really interesting, so decided to do a number of monochrome studies by mixing only with black and white. I wondered if I could produce an interesting composition without colour. This was a good challenge for me as I am such a colour lover that  I sometimes struggle for a long time, going round in circles  to get the balance between light and dark right in a painting. 

After starting the year in this way I'm now dying to get on with making some big, colourful paintings and made a good start last weekend. I'll share these with you soon.