Protection in Black Painting

I normally always try to do one black portrait due to the challenge of light vs. dark, choice of colors. This inspiration for this piece was a strong, beautiful black man, but portrayed in a pose that is more vulnerable. Not a typical strong man, macho posture. The use of palm fronds, plants as the abstract skin feature adds a calm, tranquility. The overall result is with more of a focus on the beauty of the skin, the man creating a balance between light/dark, masculine/feminine, strong/vulnerable. I chose a beautiful heavy white linen surface instead of standard canvas to give a softer texture and matt surface.