Master paint-maker David Coles explains the complex process behind making color visceral.
David Coles is the founder and head paint-maker of Langridge Artist Colours. This is an edited extract fromThroughout history, people have found ways to permanently"fix" color to create lasting images of the most exquisite beauty. For instance, the binding of pigments in Neolithic cave paintings was probably serendipitous; cave walls containing silicas or limestone trapped the pigment and locked it to the surface over time.
In my role as a master paint-maker, I make oil paint, which are made by dispersing pigments in a"drying oil" such as linseed, walnut, poppy or safflower oils. Linseed oil is by far the most important and widely used drying oil. When drying oils absorb oxygen they convert from a liquid into a hard, permanent coating. Pigments can be bound with very small amounts of oil. This means that oil paints contain much higher amounts of the pigment than watercolor or acrylic paints.
To select our pigments, we go through a long period of investigation. We select colors of interest, research the chemical construction of the pigment, and assess its suitability for artists' paint before requesting samples for laboratory trials.The anticipation of opening a sample box and seeing a new pigment for the first time, in its raw unadulterated form, is exhilarating.
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