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in bed with mona lisa

everything you've always wanted to know about art materials but didn't dare to ask the shop assistant

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PAINTING MATERIALS e) Easels

STILL WORKING ON THIS PAGE… THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

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As expected –and anticipated– I meet at the Forbes pigment collection some old acquaintances but some I discover too. A bit like seeing for the first time old pen friends you know so much about but have never seen for real. Here are the ancient blues: indigo, genuine ultramarine, Egyptian frit, Mayan blue; the fiery –and mostly deadly– reds: Vermillion, Cinnabar, Realgar, Cochineal, the not less toxic Emerald Green or lead white. One can even admire ‘in the flesh’ a piece of Mummy and ‘in the particle’ the striking YInMn Blue. Read the full post of my visit to the fabulous Forbes pigment collection… https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2019/06/01/pigments-on-my-bucket-list/ #inbedwithmonalisa #forbespigmentcollection #foggartmuseum #foggmuseum #harvardartmuseums #pigments #renzopiano #rawpigments #naturalpigments #pigment #exploringcolourpigments #earthcolours #cochineal #yinmnblue #mummybrown #indigo #lapislazuli #Vermillion #Cinnabar #Realgar #colours #coloursinmylife #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #AssociationInternationaledelaCouleur #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt

One would assume the pigments of the Forbes collection to reside in a vault underground or at least in the lower ‘historical’ section of the building but not at all. There they are at the top, aligned in lab-like glass cabinets along a narrow corridor paneled with glass too so that you can see it (the collection) from the courtyard even if you can’t see them (the pigments). When you reach the fourth floor and finally enter Ali Baba’s colour stash, with the sun shining through the ceiling, hitting the beams and scattered by all this glass, it is breathtaking –if virtually impossible to take a good picture in there! Read the full post of my visit to the fabulous Forbes pigment collection… https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2019/06/01/pigments-on-my-bucket-list/ #inbedwithmonalisa #forbespigmentcollection #foggartmuseum #foggmuseum #harvardartmuseums #pigments #renzopiano #rawpigments #naturalpigments #pigment #exploringcolourpigments #earthcolours #cochineal #mayanblue #colours #coloursinmylife #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #AssociationInternationaledelaCouleur #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt

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 des couleurs servant à la peinture à l’eau kept in the Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en Provence, or to visit the Gamblin factory or…. the Forbes pigment collection. All of these can only be accessed if you are a professional in the field with an excellent reason to need to manipulate these rare books or that pigment sample. They are NOT open to the public. And so, basically, my wish list grows while I wait for miracles! Read the full post of my visit to the fabulous Forbes pigment collection… https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2019/06/01/pigments-on-my-bucket-list/ #inbedwithmonalisa #forbespigmentcollection #foggartmuseum #foggmuseum #harvardartmuseums #pigments #renzopiano #rawpigments #naturalpigments #pigment #exploringcolourpigments #earthcolours #cochineal #mayanblue #colours #coloursinmylife #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #AssociationInternationaledelaCouleur #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt

How could I resist? #monalavender #ivegotagardennow!

Payne's grey meditation a few weeks ago... wishing u all had a wonderful "international colour day" today #internationalcolourday #its today #colour #paynesgrey #greyisacolour #stillatthecentreballina #workinprogress

Another of Alfred Munsell’s invention was a disk that, when spun, would show you if the percentage of colours you have chosen for any given artwork will produce a delightful neutral grey. And when I say delightful, I mean delightful to Alfred. Because the man not only classified and ‘notated’ colours, he also approved or disapproved of art or design in which colours are “poorly related and do not balance in neutral gray.” Of course that’s what his 6 primaries in equal shares produce but it also seems, perhaps after a sojourn in beautiful grey Paris, that Alfred had developed a taste for colour harmony that would imply that a “neutral” result would be the best possible outcome. It is however quite difficult to see if the proportion of colours in an artwork will produce the sought for grey. But not if you have one of these! If in the mood, go on my blog and get to know Munsell and his colour theory + read a bit about my visit to the Boston Munsell Centennial Symposium: https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2018/12/10/munsell-chips-anyone/ #inbedwithmonalisa #Munsell #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #AssociationInternationaledelaCouleur #colour #color #colourtheory #colortheory #colourwheels #colorwheel #colourmixing #colorcompanion #colourchips #Munsellchips #Xrite #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt

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