If you’re into vast skies and rolling hills covered with heather in bloom, exquisite man-made grey stone walls crisscrossing them, beige-grey stone houses with slate roofs in which you can just imagine the Brontë sisters writing their novels and, of course, sheep… Northumberland might be just right for you. (Read the fine print before moving…
Dear Pigment, (a love letter)
As I needed a link so that readers of the wonderful Institute of Making‘ s newsletter could read the full version… there it is! Dear Pigment, I thought I would give you an update of where I’m at right now. As you might have understood from all my probing, I’ve been researching you for quite…
in bed with… natural pigments
I know, I know, there should be caps to Natural and Pigments. It just looked more yummy this way and in bed with… natural pigments, just the thought, hey? Bit messy perhaps but ever so colourful! (In the mood for real beds and natural pigments? check out my ochre blog page) The droughty, scorching summer is…
In bed with… She-who-whispers-to-the-ochres, Heidi Gustafson
Just as I cross the border from Canada into the States, the sun emerges from the lake on my right… It’s beautiful, and I’m early. I stop for a coffee with a sunrise view, then drive leisurely along little country roads enjoying the farms and the stunning colours of autumn in Washington state. Yellows, oranges,…
Pigments on my bucket list…
I always found bucket lists an idiotic first world annoyingly greedy ‘even-if-it-costs-the-Earth-I-want-to-have-it-all’ sort of thing. Until I realised I had one! Mine of course, haha, is of the more educated type. My wish list comprises to be able to touch the medieval manuscripts in the Cambridge collection and A. Boogert’s sole copy of his Traité…
Munsell chips anyone?
Until a couple of months ago I hardly knew and cared even less about Albert Henry Munsell. Researching colour I had come across some of his beautifully painted charts and somehow knew he was relevant to colour theory but, despite the fact that he was obviously a name among only a handful or two that…
Naming the fugitive, the elusive, the unnameable… Part 1
If one says “Red” (the name of a colour) and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different. Josef Albers Obviously our rainbow is not going to suffice… even with the addition…
in bed with… the Sennelier family
I could have subtitled this post “12 shades of grey” but perhaps, just perhaps mind you, it might have been going a little too far… and yet they exist: Cold grey, Blue grey, Light grey, English grey, Yellow grey, Grey green, Reddish brown grey, Medium grey, Violet grey, Grey deep, Payne’s grey, Charcoal grey… see…
In bed with… Jim Cobb (aka Mr Chroma)
Leaving the Chroma factory after been given a visit of the whole place, I muse that I’ve only got half of a story. Yes, I’ve collected evidence: the colour spills, the empty tubes, the rolls of labels, the large vats with paint decanting while others are being stirred with the biggest ‘spoon’ before their contents…
In bed with… Ochre
Ochre? Ocher? I’ll choose the first spelling… No offense intended, ochre is simply more visually pleasing to me, in all probability only because it’s closet to the French spelling I have always been familiar with. Oddly in English (being the baffling thing it is) ochre and ocher are pronounced the same. Personal taste will make…
in bed with… Master Paint-maker David Coles
Early in the 90’s, David Coles brought from England to Australia his passion for pigments, his expertise in art supplies and his youthful determination. What he could not know at the time though is that this red continent would offer him something most unexpected and surprising: a desire for new colours… David’s first factory’s location…
In bed with… Isabelle Roché & Margaret Zayer
Hard to believe Margaret is not a direct descendant of one of Renoir’s favourite model… perhaps that rather cocky girl tying the ribbon of her hat? Or that one leaning her whole body to better hear her lover’s words in her ear… Although today positively more in the vein of La Femme à la collerette…
in bed with mona lisa 