Drawing a shadow

This example of one of my previous works shows how I am trying to manipulate the viewer as they hand made etched line cause an illusion of a shadow along side the layers of paint that are applied, fail to cover lines and forms that emerge through the paint.

I was previously reading a book about 'Drawing a Shadow' written by Alan Johnson (2010) he describes a shadow as a "sensation more than a thought, a physical feeling of balance, of something restored with little awareness of what was missing."
I take this to mean that a sense of shadow creates a shift in perception as they become a sort of work in between a work.

<----My painting on the left you can see there is evidence of the past or the failure of the painting before. This can cause a state of wonder as the 'shadow like forms' generate over and under the surface of paint where they interact with light as if they were its product. the forms create the illusion of thickening and thinning the image according to its intensity.

The closer the viewer interacts with these ghostly forms the more interaction the viewer will have with the painting as light catches the edges of forms that emerge through the paint or marks that were gently etched into the paper, these two processes of mark making create these 'shadow like' appearances as they become the final work and the in between work.

Charles Esche decribe Alan Johnsons shadows as "A sense of dualism, which invades the work - balancing light and dark, form and void, positive and negative - so that neither are triumphant." Esche, C, (2010). This quote I think has a strong relationship to mine as these are the processes i use when making my work, i treat it as a sort of check - list that the artwork must involve. These things that occur create subtle illusions that keep the viewer active when encountering the work.