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A Colour A Day: Week 35

By Ruth Siddall, on 22 November 2020

A Colour A Day: Week 35. 16th – 22nd November

Jo Volley writes …

‘We had a remarkable sunset one day last November. I was walking in a meadow, the source of a small brook, when the sun at last, just before setting, after a cold gray day, reached a clear stratum in the horizon, and the softest, brightest morning sunlight fell on the dry grass and on the stems of the treesÂ in the opposite horizon and on the leaves of the shrub oaks on the hillside, while our shadows stretched long over the meadow east-ward, as if we were the only motes in its beam. It was such a light as we could not have imagined a moment before, and the air also was so warm and serene that nothing was wanting to make a paradise of that meadow. When we reflected that this was not a solitary phenomenon, never to happen again, but that it would happen forever and ever, an infinite number of evenings, and cheer and reassure the latest child that walked there, it was more glorious still.’

Extract from ‘Walking’ by Henry David Thoreau, 1862
(for J.S)

Pigments manufactured by Ruth Siddall, bound in gum Arabic on W&N watercolour paper, and read from left to right:

Weld & Calcium Carbonate Lake
Annatto Lake
Safflower Carthamidin Lake
Eosin Lake #1 & Annatto Lake 50:50 mix
Eosin Chalk Lake
Geranium Lake
Eosin Lake #1

Filed under #Artist, #ArtistsPigments, #Colour, #ColourandPoetry, #ColourinNature, #Dyes, #KitchenChemistry, #LakePigments, #MaterialsResearch, #MaterialsResearchProject, #OrganicPigments, #Paint, #painting, #Palettes, #pigments, #PigmentTimelineProject, #PlantToPigment

Tags: #AColourADay, #JoVolley, #SladeSchoolofFineArt, Materials, Painting

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A Colour A Day: Week 26

By Ruth Siddall, on 20 September 2020

A Colour A Day: Week 26. 14th-20th September

Jo Volley writes…

This weeks colours are 7 lake pigments manufactured by Ruth Siddall.

ON THE CHARACTER OF A RED CALLED LAC
CHAPTER XLIII

A colour known as lac is red, and it is an artificial colour. And I have various receipts for it; but I advise you, for the sake of your works, to get the colour ready made for your money. But take care to recognise the good kind, because there are several types of it. Some lake is made from the shearings of cloth and it is very attractive to the eye. Beware of this type, for it always retains some fatness in it, because of the alum, and does not last at all, either with temperas or without temperas, and quickly loses its colour. Take care to avoid this; but get the lac which is made from gum, and it is dry, lean, granular, and looks almost black, and contains a sanguine colour. This kind cannot be other than good and perfect. Take this, and work it upon your slab; grind it with clear water. And it is good on panel; and it is also used on the wall with a tempera; but the air is its undoing. There are those who grind it with urine; but it becomes unpleasant, for it promptly goes bad.

Cennino Cennini, Il Libro dell’Arte

All pigments are bound in gum Arabic on W&N watercolour paper and read from left to right:

Iris green lake – ‘Lily green’
Logwood lake
Logwood ‘chalk’ lake
Cutch #1
Cutch #2
Butterfly Pea Flower lake
Lac lake – Kerria lacca

Filed under #Artist, #ArtistsPigments, #Colour, #KitchenChemistry, #LakePigments, #MaterialsResearch, #MaterialsResearchProject, #OrganicPigments, #Paint, #painting, #Palettes, #pigments, #PigmentTimelineProject, #PlantToPigment, #SladeSchool, #WinsorandNewton

Tags: #AColourADay, #JoVolley, Slade School of Fine Art

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A Colour A Day: Week 17

By Ruth Siddall, on 19 July 2020

A Colour A Day. Week 17: 13-19 July

Jo Volley writes…

Over the last week I have had the privilege to work with 7 colours produced and sent to me by Ruth Siddall. To receive these little packets of pigments through the post and work them into paint has been a pure delight.

Ruth says of them. “These colours are all based on lake pigments made from American plants and an insect, the cochineal beetle. Three are wood dyes (logwood, brazilwood and osage orange), Aztec marigold was made from dried flowers, the avocado lake was made from a dye extracted from the stones of the fruit. Annatto (or achiote, achiotl) is a spice made from seeds. The latter was used as a ink in historical Mexican painting, and also as food colouring and a cosmetic.”

All are bound in gum arabic on W&N watercolour paper and read from left to right.

Osage Orange, Maclura pomifera

Annatto, Bixa orellana

Cochineal, Dactylopius coccus

Logwood, Haematoxylum campechianum

Brazilwood, Caesalpina echinata

Aztec Marigold, Tagetes erecta

Avocado, Persea americana

Filed under #Artist, #ArtistsPigments, #LakePigments, #MaterialsResearch, #MaterialsResearchProject, #OrganicPigments, #Paint, #Palettes, #pigments, #pigmentstories, #PigmentTimelineProject, #PlantToPigment, #SladeSchool, #WinsorandNewton

Tags: #JoVolley

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A Colour A Day: Week 10

By Ruth Siddall, on 31 May 2020

A Colour A Day Week 10; 25th-31st May

Jo Volley writes …

This week’s colours are produced by Ruth Siddall and dedicated to the Land Art pioneer Agnes Denes on her 89^th birthday on Sunday 31^st May.

‘These colours represent my first experiments in lake pigments; dyes made insoluble by the addition of a mordant, in this case alum with the further addition of either potassium or sodium carbonate in solution. The initial dye baths were made from raw materials from my kitchen (waste onion skins and dried hibiscus and marigold flowers used in tisanes), plant material collected from local areas of parkland (nettles, dandelion and bark from birch logs) and finally some madder roots which were sent to me as a present by Stephanie Nebbia, courtesy of the Winsor & Newton laboratories. All were made in my kitchen, with adapted equipment and materials during the initial few weeks of lockdown in March and April 2020.’ Ruth Siddall

1. Birch Bark (alkaline)

2. Dandelion Lake

3. Nettle Green(copper modifier)

4. Rose Madder

5. Hibiscus Lake

6. Marigold Lake

7. Onion Skin Lake