Anatomy of Greys BeginsDeb joined me in the studio to begin our "grey project". Had a good start but we both agree that documenting the process will be painful, since neither of us has ever consciously thought about the process that much.
“You will at some point try to paint and then see yourself, and what you can do is so far away from what you want to do that you cringe and want to quit.”
A nanogram more of any pigment and it creates a completely different grey. Purely out of necessity, my painting has been pulled together with multiple dry brushed, cigarette-paper-thin layers of mixed greys. This could be what Rubens meant by thirty-eight layers is not enough; I must be on at least my 35th layer of barely there paint. AND, the best thing…these subtle nuances of paint are all affected by changes in light temperature — one petal takes precedent under cool light and then concedes the fore to a different petal under warm light. Give me gray, grey, and more chromatic gray. No matter how you spell it, I am captivated by the whole range of beautiful greys.
“An artist has no hurry to get away from the work lest it go wrong. She faces it out and wins out.”
Two peony paintings are complete. Any more will have to wait; I really want to finish “Oil & Water” for this exhibit. Okay, just because I’m not a series painter doesn’t mean I’m not a serious painter.
