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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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PAINTS – f) Oil: 3. Gessos & Grounds

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Today is International Colour Day so sending you some tender ones... It is also the first day of Spring for some, the first day of Autumn for others... I have never felt so apart from all my loved ones on the other side of this planet... And I have never felt so close to them in my heart... It's a beautiful day to celebrate all the hues of the world, all the nuances of love!

A couple of years ago, as a talking stone was going round a circle of beautiful sisters, we were each asked to define in one word how we saw/hoped our futures. Not usually prone to the single word (!) one somehow did pop into mind immediately: Pigmented! A rather interrogative silence followed my declaration and only one brave women asked me later: did you mean colourful? No, I didn't quite. I meant exactly what I said: pigmented! And why am I sharing this? Well because I am now an official "Pigment Person!" The delicious Wild Pigment Project (my hat off to Tilke Elkins behind this) has just included me in their page and I feel truly honoured -If somewhat worried I might not deserve this! So (one-of offer, warning you) if you want to know more about me, please open the tab Pigment People in… the wildpigmentproject #pigments #wildpigmentproject #pigmentpeople #artsupplies #artresearcher #artresearch

I felt like sharing one more photo of Heidi Gustafson’s wonderful studio-soul-space (and I will) but today’s date altered my trajectory… This one then not to point you in the direction of my blog (although you are very welcome of course to read about my visit to her there) but to thank you. YOU, my growing community of colour lovers. So many have followed me recently and I’m taking my time to look at all your feeds and websites (still some to discover). Am overwhelmed with the akin-ness I feel with you who collect flowers, nuts or rusted nails to make interesting inks, fabrics, balms or rainbow skeins; you who fossick, grind, sieve to turn pieces of Earth into non-toxic paints or powerful displays. You seem to tread lightly, sharing my reverence for the old ways of approaching and touching pigment, colour, planet –always expressing yourselves elegantly, in one creative way or another. I share your astonishments, your admiration, your curiosity and these invisible threads between us are giving me incredible Joy, even Hope (a feeling which took me by surprise!) and a sense of Belonging… to a much larger web than I knew existed of com-passionate ones, doing good deeds, on our beyond beautiful spinning Home. I cannot thank you enough for being the priceless gift YOU are… #heidilynnheidilynn #instagramlove #earthlover #ochre #ocre #dust #colourismypassion #rawpigments #naturalpigments #wildpigmentproject #pigment #paintingwithpigments #soil #geologictime #deeptime #earth #redearth #dreamwork #minerals #mineralpigment #earthpigment #materialcolor #ochrearchive #earthcolors

I’m personally very touched by Heidi’s bricolage-assemblages. I love the colours of course, and the trays remind me of those other wooden ones, still found sometimes, in whose little compartments metal types were sorted by letter and other typeset characters. Except that here, ochres in their primordial language combine to make, maybe not words or sentences but, perhaps some sense of this crazy world… somehow! Read the whole post In bed with… She-who -whispers-to-the-ochres, Heidi Gustafson on my blog inbedwithmonalisa dot com (link in bio) #heidilynnheidilynn #instagramlove #ochre #ocre #dust #colourismypassion #rawpigments #naturalpigments #pigment #paintingwithpigments #soil #geologictime #deeptime #earth #redearth #dreamwork #minerals #mineralpigment #earthpigment #materialcolor #ochrearchive #earthcolors

Foraging, samples of her finds always come home with her and now sit on the shelves, attentive, vibrant… nothing like an old, dusty collection of dead rocks! These keep interesting company too, as friends and strangers forward to her an ever-growing collection of colourful Earths from all over. Heidi greets them like admired friends and introduces them to me: feel how gritty this one is, how greasy this one, and all these from Australia that dusty feeling at the surface that’s very specific… That one, so different on each side, reflects two quite distinct states of iron: dehydrated up there, probably still in water down here. I admire in a tray a display of all of those she brought back from the last workshop she offered. From the same ochre site, really? Yes, a powerful site will usually offer ever so many hues. Read the whole post In bed with… She-who -whispers-to-the-ochres, Heidi Gustafson on my blog inbedwithmonalisa dot com (link in bio) #heidilynnheidilynn #instagramlove #ochre #ocre #dust #colourismypassion #rawpigments #naturalpigments #pigment #paintingwithpigments #soil #geologictime #deeptime #earth #redearth #dreamwork #minerals #mineralpigment #earthpigment #materialcolor #ochrearchive #earthcolors

Yellows, oranges, reds… trees right now in ochre hues, I muse… pigments breaking down, oxidation of tannins in the leaf turning these brown soon enough. I sing to myself as I’m happy. In fact, I’m as excited as if meeting a long lost friend, yet have never set eyes on Heidi Gustafson, the lady waiting for me in a little wooden cabin in the woods… which I will hopefully find at the end of a dirt road. It’s all a little mysterious and so improbable too! My being in this place so far from home(s), her willingness to meet me whom she doesn’t know and the connection also. When I began understanding a few years ago that Instagram could actually link me with like-minded/interested strangers I soon came across Heidi’s elegant posts… beautiful images, soulful sharings. Among all of us pigment lovers, she stood out as a full-time devotee! It was never quite clear to me what she actually did though… Read the whole post In bed with… She-who -whispers-to-the-ochres, Heidi Gustafson on my blog inbedwithmonalisa dot com (link in bio) #heidilynnheidilynn #instagramlove #ochre #ocre #dust #colourismypassion #rawpigments #naturalpigments #pigment #paintingwithpigments #soil #geologictime #deeptime #earth #redearth #dreamwork #minerals #mineralpigment #earthpigment #materialcolor #ochrearchive #earthcolors

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