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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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In a strange sort of way, maybe intended, these eclectic displays of the Forbes collection reflect the messy, random way we obsessively searched for colours and the ingredients they could combine with to make our lovely paints and other materials we can use to make Art. They most certainly draw their very own map of the world: berries from Persia, cowhide glue from Kyoto, plaster lime from Florence and Meudon white, wood cuttings from Brazil, pink earth from Constantinople, a ball of raw Indian yellow, lapis from Lazuli, copal from Zanzibar and madder root grown in… E.W. Forbes’s garden! 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 #pigsbladders #earthcolours #cochineal #yinmnblue #mummybrown #indigo #lapislazuli #Vermillion #Cinnabar #Realgar #colours #coloursinmylife #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #AssociationInternationaledelaCouleur #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt

What I was not prepared for in the least, when I visited the Forbes pigment collection, was that random, mumble jumble of old measuring devices, pig’s bladders, tubes, bottles, phials, boxes, shakers, trays, Petri dishes on the shelves behind these scientific looking doors. Furthermore, every little or large bottle had a different shape, colour, original label and cap: twist, seal, plug, cork, glass. Some look so rusted that you had to wonder if they had ever been opened. But yes is the answer as every item is strung now with a neat little label complete with barcode and all the pigments –their characteristics, spectra, etc.– are in a database accessible to professionals, often restorers, in need of such information. If in the mood, you can check it yourself here. 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 #pigsbladders #earthcolours #cochineal #yinmnblue #mummybrown #indigo #lapislazuli #Vermillion #Cinnabar #Realgar #colours #coloursinmylife #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #AssociationInternationaledelaCouleur #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt

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!

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