Fifty Shades of Gray

Marketing Mondays will return in mid September

Color: Field and Form will continue next week

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Linda Cordner, Cinquefoil Gray, 2011, encaustic, 24 x 24 inches.

The buzz about Fifty Shades of Grey, the erotic romance with a surprisingly ardent audience, started me thinking about 50 shades of gray, the achromatic hue we are passionate about. I put out a call to my Facebook friends for images. Many responded. I added a few images from elsewhere on the Internet, and voilà, the post you see here. These tonalities of smoke and charcoal, fog and shadow, dust and ash invite intimate viewing. The difference, of course, is that the stimulation here is strictly retinal.  Thank you all for contributing your images. I wish I could have included them all.
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Lisa Pressman, Dream, 2012, mixed media, 5 x 5 inches

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Timothy Hawkesworth, Two Boats, 2012; oil, pencil, wax on paper,
40 x 36 inches. Courtesy of Littlejohn Contemporary, New York City
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Mark Creegan, Value Scale, 2007; used paint rollers, wood, bungee cord, 53 x 12 inches

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Nancy Natale, Dark Companion, 2011, mixed media on panel, 36 x 36 inches

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Denyse Thomasos, Yves Bleu, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 78 x 72 inches

Thomas was not a Facebook friends--indeed, I didn't know her, though I was a fan of her work--but I've included a painting here to acknowledge her untimely passing

Image and obituary from Hyperallergic.com

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Elisa D'Arrigo, Reconstructed, 2008; handmade paper, cloth, pigments, thread, acrylic medium,  15 x 11 x 8 inches
Image from the artist's website
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Lynn Basa, Disturbance, 2011, oil and beeswax on panel, 10 x 10 inches
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Stephen Maine, Vapors #V11-07909, 2011, ink on paper, 14 x 11 inches

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Jane Guthridge, Light Triptych, 2012, encaustic monotype, 36 x 12 inches each

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Lauri Lynxe Murphy, Hindsight 2, 2012, cut silk organza, 24 x 30 inches

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Howard Hersh, Associating, 2009, encaustic on panel, 40 x 50 inches
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Janet Filomeno, Delaware Series No. 12, 2007; mica, graphite, aluminum paint on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

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Julia Schwartz, Driving into Big Sky, 2012, oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches
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Wayne Montecalvo, Dorothy's Landing, 2012, pigment stick on glass

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Sandra Quinn, Bija 2, 2010, ink on paper, 5.5 X 7 inches

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Sky Pape,  Untitled (Image 3913), 2012, water and sumi ink on paper, app. 12 x 16 inches. Image from Facebook

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Toby Sisson, Familiar Asylum VI, 2011, encaustic and graphite on wood, 12 x 12 inches

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Patti Russotti, Yin Yang VI, 2011, scan-o-gram printed on paper, 23 x 25 inches

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Laura Moriarty, Passed Scenes, 2009, monotype on gampi, 25 x 39 inches

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Diane Englander, White Forms, 2011, diptych, 14 x 11 inches each

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Cynde Goldman, Morning Light, photograph

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Gelah Penn, Polyglot #5, 2012; graphite, acrylic, monofilament on yupo, 23 x 21 x 2 inches

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Bryan Cypher, Untitled, 2012, acrylic and graphite on paper, 1ches

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Marc Cheetham, PW-30, 2011, acrylic on gozo moriki paper,  9
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Jeanne Heifetz, Surface Tension, Basalt Layers,  2007, glass rods and steel mesh, 10 x 10 inches

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James Austin Murray, I Could Look at You Forever, 2012, oil on canvas,  48 x 48 inches
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Altoon Sultan, Grays, 2012, egg tempera on calfskin parchment, 5 x 7 inches.

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Mary Bucci McCoy,  Sleeper, 2010, acrylic on plywood panel, 16 x 16 x 3 inches

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Susan Schwalb, Aurora 36, 2012; silver/gold/copper/aluminum/pewter/tinpoint, black gesso on paper, 9 x 9 inches

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Paul Behnke, Speeder, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

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Elizabeth Sheppell, Fat Series, No. 24, 2012, acrylic on panel. 6 x 6 inches

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Julie Torres, Can't Stand Losing You, 2012, acrylic on panel, 8 x 8 inches
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Loouise P. Sloane, Gray Texture 23, 2009, latex paint, caulking on metal, 11 x 7 inches

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Lynette Haggard, Rhythmo No. 19, 2012, mixed media on Arches, 20 x 13 inches

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Mira M. White, Love the Earth, 2011, graphite and beeswax on 300 lb. hotpress, 11 x 15 inches
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Joanne Mattera, Untitled (for now), 2012, graphite on 300 lb. hotpress Fabriano, 22 x 30 inches
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James Erikson, IR, 2009, ink wash on Okawara paper, 8 x 12 inches.

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Louise Weinberg, Notice, 2006, collage and ink, 10 x 8 inches
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Gudrun Mertes-Frady, Orbits, 2012, oil and wax on wood panel, 18 x 18 inches
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.Larry Schulte, Untitled, 1998, woven and painted paper, 54 x 54 inches
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Laird Campbell, Untitled No. 53, 2012, multiple-pass inkjet print on canvas, 50 x 40 inches; image from Facebook

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Gregory Wright, Reaching Out, 2010, encaustic and mixed media on panel, 30 x 36 inches

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Marjorie Kaye, Proper Padding, 1996, graphite on bristol, 12 x 9 inches

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Martie Negri, Silent River Silver Garden, glass, 19 x 19 x 8
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Christine Aaron, Winter Trees, 2009, paperlith and encaustic on board, 12 x 12 inches

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Cherie Mittenthal,  Landscape with Mast, 2012, encaustic on paper, 12 x 9 inches

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Dorothy Cochran, Waiting, 1996, aquatint etching, 40 x 28 inches

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Linda Colsh, The Long Run, 2012, fiber, 40 x 40 inches

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With the preceding work called The Long Run, the one that follows could easily be called "The Last Stand."  It's not, it's Self Portrait, but it does take the last stand in 50 Shades of Gray, both the title and substance of this post.

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Marlk Staff Brandl, Self Portrait, 2009, oil on canvas, 75 x 32 inches

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Please consider a voluntary annual donation of $20. A post like this takes about three days of  full-time work to organize, edit and caption. If you scroll down the sidebar from the top, you'll find a Paypal link. Your donation will help me continue to maintain this blog. Thank you. And big, big thanks to all the readers who have done so already!