The Neutrality of Gray

Once upon a time, I wanted to paint our apartment living room. I went to the paint store and soon selected a yellow color. I painted the entire living room two coats before realizing this was a terrible choice. So I went back to the paint store. This time, I brought Sean.

Sean the painter told me about the neutrality of gray. He told me it was important to use gray as a baseline color, something to compare to so you can really see the color you’re using.

He describes how colors can look in relation to each other,

“If I surround this color with yellow it’ll look brown and if I use this color, it’ll look red. Your eyes only see relative color, not absolute color. We can try to perceive the color options more objectively by comparing each to a neutral color.”

So we found a grey paint swatch and held it close to other colors, using it to compare to, to make sure we were choosing the paint we actually wanted. We ended up choosing a sagey-green with a deep maroon accent wall which satisfied.

It reminds me of a time I attended a candymaking class at Christmas. The instructor was making toffee and she said that your toffee should be the color of a brown bag and warned to not let it get too dark. But since you’re standing staring at your bubbling pot of sugar/caramel(?) ( I was paying close attention) you will lose the ability to really see what color it is until it’s too late. So she instructed to look away every few seconds. Just—look away, at something else.

It was really funny to me because her looking away was really sudden and intense. But I so appreciate this idea of the importance of contrast. To have something to compare to, to use as a measuring stick in relation. What might it look like to “look away” from a thing? How might that be useful? And what is it you might look at? To help you really see and understand the scene before you as you aim to make wise decisions and enjoy a space in which to spend your time, enjoy the candy of your creation.

I’ve learned to look at winter that way. A grey phase or canvas to offset my life, to provide balance and contrast to the color to come and to create, making it more meaningful, intentional, impactful and vibrant. It isn’t easy. I can get lost in the grey and if I’m not careful, things can become burnt and bitter. But it’s a helpful tempering tool. And spring never looks so good as right after the bleak neutrality of winter grays.

color palette by mthawksoft

Last year we visited SF and hit up some museums. It is fun to stroll about, seeing what strikes your particular fancy. And I found a new favorite. To share with you on what might be a grey day, while appreciating the opportunity for offset it provides, let’s also celebrate some color, to show us how it feels when things are made a little more right.

Happy 100th birthday this year to Richard Mayhew, an Afro-Native American landscape painter, illustrator and educator. Thanks for painting scenes of a world I want to live in or perhaps in some ways, already do.

Here’s an interesting article on him. The final paragraph reads:

At times Mayhew pushes back against the idea that his pictures are landscapes at all: they may look like landscapes, he says, “but that is not necessarily my preoccupation in painting”. They are instead spiritual moodscapes, but perhaps also the product of his search for “The Great Happening,” the ­moment – on and off the canvas – when everything comes right. 

I dug a little and found what he meant by “Great Happening.” Here’s a blip from another article by a person who visited him in his studio ten years ago. Mayhew sang some improvised jazz as he described a particular work to his guest and she said,

It made sense. Because it’s not just about painting; it’s about how painting is like music and writing, and what occurs when all those things intersect; what Mayhew described as “The Great Happening.”

So. As you go about your day crafting your own spiritual moodscape, I hope this helps. Me, I always love a splash of color on a grey day. But I love a grey day to prepare me for it.

I failed to write down the names of these but I sure enjoyed participating in this collaboration.

Click here for google images of Richard Mayhew’s works. Just start scrolling and let your eyes eat up the pink skies, blue shrubs, purple trees and lime meadows. It’s like rainbow sherbet for the soul (the dessert course after chicken soup).