Neutral Greys: Portland Grey Light, Portland Grey Medium, and Portland Grey Deep
The grey skies of our fair city inspired Robert Gamblin to formulate three Portland Greys – Light, Medium, and Deep. These three neutral greys were developed to help painters quickly adjust the value and chroma of colors.
Portland, Oregon
Portland Grey Light, Medium, and Deep are formulated at Munsell values 8, 6, and 4, respectively.
These neutral greys give painters the ability to simultaneously adjust value and reduce the intensity of brighter colors for more naturalistic color mixing. The chart below uses the Portland Greys to complete a full range of values, as well as illustrates their effect on Gamblin Permanent Orange.
Whether mixed into an intense orange, or other high-key colors, using the Portland Greys in color mixing yields predictable, yet very satisfying color mixtures for all genres of painting.
Seattle-based painter and instructor Mitch Albala uses the Portland Greys to neutralize the brighter, purer colors in his palette to create a sense of color harmony and atmosphere in his work. This harmonized, tonal approach to color is evident in Albala’s waterfall paintings where the subtle shifts in temperature and hue are dictated by the unifying use of grey. Mitch Albala is a prominent blogger and author of the book, Landscape Painting (Watson-Guptill/Random House, 2009).
Colors that might be too dissimilar or discordant in a brighter or more saturated color painting, are calmed down and better able to agree with each other when they are neutralized.
Another tip for creating harmony in color mixing: consider using Portland Grey Light in place of white for low-light painting situations.
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