How many shades of grey can you find in this picture? Do you feel surrounded by grey in the winter?
We've had our share of grey days this month -- lots of rain -- but also fog and grey skies. Looking out at the dark grey clouds, grey landscape, grey roads, I began to feel grayness in my soul. It all seemed the same shade of grey: fog.
My challenge to myself: paint the beauty in shades of grey.
I started taking photos of every wintry shade of grey I could find. Back in my workroom, I painted a palette of greys using a foundation mix of ultramarine blue, quinacrodine red, and hansa yellow. I changed the ratio in each box and added other colors from the pencil list below. I also tried painting with black tourmaline, hematite, and neutral tint in the hope that I wouldn't just have flat grey. The minerals in these watercolors separated as they dried so the colors became more appealing.
I found multiple shades of grey. Maybe I could create a beautiful grey painting after all!
I was lucky that we visited Pt. Reyes over the weekend. I found grey everywhere I looked: boat docks, bridge girders, water.
I found blue grey in the bumper of a truck:
I found yellow grey by a boat dock:
I found reddish grey in the morning clouds:
and realized the depth in shades of grey. Now I'm on a grey painting binge. Here's the first Grey Horizon:
My Challenge to you:
take photos of the grey skies around you right now. Send me your results. You can post them to my Google + Collections page https://plus.google.com/collection/k9LjEB
or my Facebook page, or Instagram at #postcardsintheair,
or email them to me at Martha Slavin <marthaslavin@gmail.com>.
I'd love to see what you find. And maybe by looking grey in the 'eye', you will find the beauty in grey days too.
I ove your scientific approach to color and how you strive to find beauty in the cold dullness of winter.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jan. Add some more greys and I will post them next Friday.
DeleteLove your perspective. I guess I could write about the brown tones of Oklahoma!
ReplyDeleteI think that is a great idea, Letty. I thought that I would chose a color to find each month. Brown tones are subtle like grey. Thanks for reading this post.
DeleteThink I will go looking for some Oklahoma browns. We have plenty of those shades, this time of year.
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ReplyDeleteHi Mariyamkhan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your encouraging comments. Did you see the Grey Challenge on Pinterest?