Tones of charcoal

Grey tones belong to the shadows, twilight periods, refracted moonlight, rain-filled skies, a moody Atlantic, battleships and gun-metal, slate, ash, smoke and soot, asphalt and drab industrial landscapes, dreary ageing and deathly pallor. A transformation to grey marks the passage of time, from which reversion to colour obliges rebirth.

And yet … an artist brings life to an image by deliberately rendering every hue of its colour in an achromatic tone of grey, as an abstraction of reality that concentrates the mind on texture, movement and drama. The artist who converts hues to tones safeguards their scene from intrusions of viewer empathy. We must remain outside it looking in from our future vantage, emotions shored up to bursting.

C.P. Doncaster, Timeline of the Human Condition, star index