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…

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…

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… 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… Daniel Smith

(Well, John Cogley really, CEO of Daniel Smith art materials and the man who, for all intents and purposes, has now become Dan Smith) Any reason that would require to go to Seattle I would probably have been game for… I’ve always wanted to go there and see for myself this city of which I’ve…

“A journey of a thousand strokes starts with one good brush.”*

Imagine my excitement when I heard there was a little town, Kumano, which was deemed THE brush capital of Japan and found out there were more than eighty brush makers still making brushes traditionally, a brush festival, a national calligraphy competition, a “day of the brush” week held there yearly AND a brush museum… Had…

Calligraphy, the art of fin(er) writing – Part 1

At some stage in the Western world most of our languages made the switch to a restricted number of symbolically meaningless shapes which, combined, made the infinity of words we needed to share our ideas and our emotions. There are still variations among alphabets and it took a while to agree on the number of letters…

in bed with… 166 Golden owners!

OK, now you think this is one big joke but no… they all own the joint… what can a girl do but say the truth?When Mark and Barbara Golden realized a few years back that none of their children had a real interest in taking over Golden Artist Colors, they made the best move you…