Painting a world of grays
Painting Grays: An exercise in remembering that the world isn’t all black and white.
Recently tuned in more to media because of the United States elections lately, I’ve noticed the increasing “black and white” thinking that is shared on the air- waves, and I think it’s a distortion of the world we live in. Maybe it’s media itself, maybe it’s the players, that instigate and grow this view of extremes, this “us versus them”, “all or nothing” expressions of our ideas and emotions.
In my day- to -day life, mixing paints and brushing them onto paper I’m aware that I just need to chill a little because life is full of grays.
For instance, My next door neighbor may be a religious woman, never having left this region, who dotes on grandchildren and her pet bird, spending her days cleaning and cooking until her family drives on weekends to their country home. I, in contrast, retreat most days to my studio listening to jazz music and painting and each week I text or phone family across the Atlantic. I whip up a quick stir fry and listen to the vacuum as my husband meticulously cleans our small apartment. Our routines are interrupted by occasional trips by train or plane to other regions and countries.
After many encounters, I realize that I share commonalities with my neighbor. She and I politely meeting on the elevator-shopping bags in hands, chatting (in Spanish) about the weather, and I see that we both like to travel; we get sick, exist in a marriage, navigate through the city as we age, and share the same neighboring walls. We both hope, fear, celebrate, and mourn.
We are colorful and our lives contain many shades of gray.
Dog, Bella. acrylic on canvas
To paint an image. I mix reds and greens, purples and yellows. Mixing different grays may take a little white, a little black. But it takes more colors to enrich scenes. Grays can lean towards the green of the grass. Grays can lean towards purples in trees or cat’s fur or reds in grooves of bark or a dog’s nose. Grays can be close to a misty white or closer to a deep blue/black in the shadowy recesses of a landscape. I add more paint and keep experimenting with combinations.
I keep the color wheel on my table or hung on the wall to refer to as I work. It helps remind me of how to shift colors when mixing.
Some describe the United States as a melting pot or the world as a mixing bowl. I’ve come to think of it as a paint palette.
Gray cat, acrylic on canvas
I think that like paint, our world needs this constant mixture of all colors, all types, all opinions, all emotions, all experiences, all people, all living creatures. Painting the grays of a shadowy night or fur of a sweet animal reminds me to stop being cornered by my comfortable viewpoints.
Experimenting with colors that are opposite on the color wheel I see how new colors spring out of it. Adding white can cool other colors. Colors next to each other can emphasize by their contrast or mute one another with their similarities. There are a zillion grays and variations of colors we discover when spending the time to mix them.
I think it’s fascinating.
And, I think it takes all shades to make a truer more vibrant illustration of our world.
Commissions of Pets
I paint pets and can even make handmade cards featuring your pets as well as painting acrylic or watercolor/gouache originals for you.