Sunday, March 8, 2009

. . . were in style




According to this morning's style section of the newspaper, gray is the new beige, not only in clothing but in home decor. I guess that means my sweatshirts are the latest fashion, as is this painting which went out the door a week or so ago. See those five squares? Think they are black? Nope, they are deep deep purple, stamped on the canvas with the end of a small block of wood. And they correspond to another stripe of deep purple on the left side of this painting, that I managed to cut off when I took this picture. Lots of texture, markings, and the requisite pop of red. Still working on those neutrals.

6 comments:

M said...

I guess I've always been ahead of the times! I'm finally in fashion (not that you can keep up with that). Gray has always been my favourite colour in clothing and decorating. I'm gray, I have two gray coats and scarves, I have three bathrooms, all various shades of gray, and a gray family room and kitchen. Oh yes, then there is the light gray studio and bedroom in my summer house. Throw in a splash of colour and you have an instant hit anywhere. Gray uncomplicates my life.

Leslie Avon Miller said...

I only *thought* about adding some red to my work yesterday. You make it look so easy!I love your work Mary!

Blue Sky Dreaming said...

Good news about gray...I love mixing a gray, always surprising isn't it, the rich qualtiy of gray.
This is lovely and the purple stripe off on the left would make a nice balance.

jo horswill said...

Beautifully balanced piece. A joy to look at. The grey works well and I love the dash of red!
I'm a bit of a grey fan myself, clothing, furnishings and artwise... My latest love is Davy's Grey an oil colour.

Mary Buek said...

Margaret, gray is such a versatile color, and there are so many different shades and tones. You can't go wrong. I love it that gray "uncomplicates" your life. I'm all for simplicity these days.

Leslie, face it, girl, red is a temptation for you. You play with the concept of it, it attracts you, but your better judgment says NO. How long can you hold out? Is that why the color red is connected to the concept of sin?

Mary Ann, I too love mixing grays. There are just so many variations, aren't there?

Jo, how interesting you would mention Davy's gray. Windsor-Newton makes it in acrylic paint, too, and it's one of my favorites. I wasn't able to buy any at the art supply store, so I researched and tried to mix up my own. It turns out that Davy's gray is a mixture of black and a couple of yellows, like oxide yellows. I never did get the combo right, but did come up with some very interesting other shades of gray in my experimentation. I also read that it was created for one specific artist of the past and is known as a "convenience" color.

Jazz said...

I was just reading this weekend that grey is THE wall colour of the season. When I moved in with Mr. Jazz, the walls in our apartment were all in shades of grey. The place is once again in desperate need of painting - maybe 20 odd years later I should simply sand the walls down to that grey.