Buddha Grey
I love color. Burning red. Hot orange. Sunshine yellow. Rich purple. Sexy magenta.. But I am beginning to learn that paintings are like people. If you keep constant company with a crowd of enthusiastic partying extroverts, the energy can be overwhelming. After all that intensity isn;t it sweet to find your introvert friend sitting quietly observing the action? Take a load off, pull up a chair and share an engaging conversation..
Grey is like that. Not just the obvious contrast to a color explosion but an almost mystical gentleness, a buddha color. If white possesses all the colors of the visible wavelength and black has none, grey sits in the middle, shrouding the palette in a soft fog and whispering, "There, isn't that the most beautiful cadmium red? And what do you think of the burnt sienna with the lemon yellow sunspots? Oh,you ask, what about me? No, no, never mind me I'll just rest easy and enjoy the view."
Robert Genn and his daughter,Sara Genn, have published bi-weekly letters since 1998 and have gathered an international community. The Painter's Keys letters are rich with personal anecdotes of a painterly life, and insights and information invaluable to artists and art lovers alike. Robert Genn is no longer with us but his letters live on thanks to Sara. who publishes one of his letters once each week, alternating with hers. One of my favorite letters, by Sara,, is entitled GREY MATTERS. The following is an exerpt:
"Something unexpected happens with grey. the colour itself seems to understand the power of in-between, like suspended twilight or ineffable places of attachment. Perhaps the narrative material is less apparent in grey - her stories curtained or over-shone by louder, simpler truths. In the meantime, grey's meanings remain fluid. In the language of painting, Understanding grey separates us from the obvious. We are removed from the one-note or cacophony of primaries and moved closer to poetry."
Check out the poetry created by Robert and Sara Genn in their art!
Grey is like that. Not just the obvious contrast to a color explosion but an almost mystical gentleness, a buddha color. If white possesses all the colors of the visible wavelength and black has none, grey sits in the middle, shrouding the palette in a soft fog and whispering, "There, isn't that the most beautiful cadmium red? And what do you think of the burnt sienna with the lemon yellow sunspots? Oh,you ask, what about me? No, no, never mind me I'll just rest easy and enjoy the view."
Robert Genn and his daughter,Sara Genn, have published bi-weekly letters since 1998 and have gathered an international community. The Painter's Keys letters are rich with personal anecdotes of a painterly life, and insights and information invaluable to artists and art lovers alike. Robert Genn is no longer with us but his letters live on thanks to Sara. who publishes one of his letters once each week, alternating with hers. One of my favorite letters, by Sara,, is entitled GREY MATTERS. The following is an exerpt:
"Something unexpected happens with grey. the colour itself seems to understand the power of in-between, like suspended twilight or ineffable places of attachment. Perhaps the narrative material is less apparent in grey - her stories curtained or over-shone by louder, simpler truths. In the meantime, grey's meanings remain fluid. In the language of painting, Understanding grey separates us from the obvious. We are removed from the one-note or cacophony of primaries and moved closer to poetry."
Check out the poetry created by Robert and Sara Genn in their art!