Well, I did just what my Daddy always told me not to do – and I did it in Vegas!
Ken Auster demonstrating at the Plein Air Convention. From the get-go he uses lots of gray.
“Artists don’t use black” Daddy said, and the black crayola stayed in the box.
But there I was, in sin city, watching Ken Auster squeeze black right out of the tube in front of hundreds of fans. As I watched, the lust grew stronger – I was falling in love with gray. His grays are downright beautiful, and most of them are the spawn of tubed black.
The impressionists didn’t use black. And there I was, craving it. I FELT A PASSIONATE NEED FOR GRAYS!
I had mistakenly thought that gray was boring – a necessary neutral to be used (if used at all) as an area of rest and recovery in a busy painting. That seemed about as exciting as nap time, gray’s equivalent, seems to children. And even less interesting than a discussion on which way to spell it. (Gray is a color and grey is a colour. Do you live in the US or the UK?)
Assignment: Spell it either way, but play with gray. If you don’t have black, you can easily mix it with burnt umber and ultramarine blue. Add a little white.
Add tiny bits of other colors to the gray and study the effects.
We pondered gray in Artful Greens and Malarkey when I described Irish days as “dove, slate, burnished pewter, silver, slate, nickel, and gull feather.” Leave a comment about your experience.
- Click to enlarge and you will see the set up used for the demonstrations at the convention.
- What happens in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas – the video below will to give you a feel for the Plein Air Convention. It was transformative, and I’ll be there again next year.
OH YEAH, BABY!!! Count me IN, I am going with you next year! …oh, and I do love the warmer grays!