Gray may seem boring. It isn't even a color, really. It's a "neutral" or "achromatic." But oh, how it can make a piece of art sing!

Gray is supposed to be the coldest of "colors". But there are warm grays and cool grays.

And just add touches of color to go with it, and you have a broad range of emotions you can paint.

Gray, especially charcoal tones, is classy. It tends to communicate dependability, to be associated with time and antiquity - solid, enduring, timeless. But silvery grays can be very futuristic, modern, techno, sleek, minimalist.

And look at the range of gray! My color dictionary lists some 200 different names of shades of gray - including pearl gray, aluminum, oyster white, cement, beige gray, silver, battleship gray, asphalt, dove, charcoal gray, gunmetal, steel gray, slate and ebony to name a few.

You can even spell it two different ways.

Gray! Grey!

The truly versatile color that isn't a color.