The value of "Value"

New year, new workshops! I just returned from an amazing workshop in St. Simons Island, GA that was all about "Value". For those of you who are not familiar with what value is, I explain it as the degree of lightness or darkness of an object.  WHITE is the lightest value (there is nothing lighter that white), and that BLACK is the darkest value (there is nothing darker than black).
A "Value Scale" has white at one end of the scale, and black at the opposite end. In the middle is a perfect "middle value" grey. Moving from this center toward white, the grey gets progressively lighter. Moving from this center toward the black, the grey gets progressively darker. Here is my "Value Painting" of two pears. There is no color, only darks and lights. It's important to know this because when you paint, if a painting has it's values correct, it looks more 3 dimensional and is more pleasing to view.

Value Study of 2 Pears

8" x 10"