Exposed Painting Paris Blue

A striking divide runs through this canvas. On the left sits a block of dense, unbroken black, firm and certain. To the right, everything softens into hazy blues and grays that trickle downward like paint left out in a drizzle. The two halves could not feel more different, and that tension is exactly what Scottish artist Callum Innes was after. Born in Edinburgh in 1962, he made his name with a series he calls his "Exposed Paintings," and this is a fine example of what that means.

The trick behind these works is surprising: Innes creates them partly by taking paint away. He layers many colors onto the surface, then pours turpentine over sections, letting the solvent drag the pigment down in thin, uneven streaks. So the blue you see is not simply blue that he painted on. It is what remains after other colors were washed off, revealing tones that were hidden underneath. Gravity and chance do much of the finishing work, and the artist steps back to let them.

Innes was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1995, and his paintings now live in collections across the globe. Do not go hunting for symbols or a story here, because there are none. The quiet reward comes from seeing what happens when an artist decides that subtraction, not addition, is the way to make a mark.