Black and White in color

The other day, someone told me that my paintings are always black and white, meaning that they feel, or reduce themselves simply to black and white. This is true. I paint with vivid colors, but I use those colors as values, rather than color for colors sake. It is this inventive use of color that is my own. The colors, become shades of gray. This also matches with my thinking while painting. If I am looking at the figure and see a little tint of orange in that skin, I put it on the canvas as pure orange. I later, once all the colors that I 'feel' are on the canvas, I unify them with base colors directly on top and begin mixing on the canvas, or in this case paper. With acrylics, I have to work super fast and wet. Painting begins to resemble a sprinting race in the Olympics. I would rather and prefer to work this way than pace myself and take months on the same work. Even in running I am a sprinter not a cross country runner; distance isn't my thing.

Also worthy to note on the black and white comment, when I watch a black and white film, I see color. Not at first, but gradually, it begins to take on colors. By the time the movie is finished, I swear it was in color. I don't know if anyone else does that, but I certainly do and that is going to manifest itself in my painting.