Artist’s Back to Basic – July 2019

P

igments are the basis of all

paint, formed originally by using

different colours of ground

clay, earth and rocks. They were

made into a paint medium by mixing

with animal fat or human saliva.

For such an interesting and

fertile subject, there is only time

in this article to discuss some of

the basic pigments which would

be found in an artist’s pallet.

Ochre and red oxides are some

of the oldest pigments used by

human kind. Evidence of ochre has

been found in ancient burial sites

such as Lake Mungo in Australia,

where bones dated to around 65,

years ago were found to be painted

in ochre earth pigments. Ochre is

usually a yellow or brown colour,

and pigments can extend into purple

and red hues. The mineral which

creates this pigment is known as

limonite,which is non-toxic (unlike

many other pigments). Red,yellow,

white and brown ochres are found

throughout central and northern

Australia, and have produced some

of the most beautiful works of art

by many Aboriginal artists such as

Rover Thomas. Another example

of ochre painting can be seen in

the early work of Lilly Karedada,

whose Wanjina spirits are painted

in pink, white and brown ochre

pigments. Early Aboriginal work was

painted on bark strips, a technique

that is still practiced today.

Over 2000 years ago in northern

China, in the period known as the

“Han Dynasty,” pigments called Han

Purple and Han Blue ( also known as

Chinese purple and Chinese blue)

were developed. These pigments

were developed by using Azurite.

Although a blue pigment was also

developed simultaneously in Egypt,

and found on the wall paintings of

Mesopotamia and Rome, the current

scholarship maintains that the

differences in chemical composition,

including the lack of lead in the

Chinese pigment, suggest they

developed independently. It has been

theorized that the Chinese Taoist

alchemists developed Han blue

by M.A Hunt

A History of Pigments

Terre Verte

From the ritual of

body decoration in

dance to the hand

forever etched onto

an ancient rock wall

and then forward

into modern painting,

where would the

human race be

without pigments to

express ourselves?

Feature