WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26-28, 9 AM-4 PM

All mediums welcome!

Winter is the perfect time to learn about Earth Colors as everywhere we look that is what we see….lovely muted tones of warm ochre, reddish umbers, and smoky blues.

Prussian Blue was the first inorganic pigment created in 1706. Before that most pigments came from rocks or roots dug out of the earth, ground up and mixed with a binder to hold it together. The earliest cave paintings were created this way with a lump of charcoal, or a soft red or yellow stone that the earliest artists discovered made a mark.

Earth colors are the ones with names like Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre or Red Iron Oxide. As their names suggest, the best Umbers (Umbria) and Siennas were originally mined in Italy, although now many come from around the world.

In the Renaissance, because of the expense of finer pigments, like Lapis Lazuli, Malachite, or Vermillion, painters had to make do with earth colors to achieve a full range of colors. They were masters at placing warms next to cools to get the most out of a pigment and extend it’s color range.

Earth colors can produce wonderfully subtle tonal paintings. In this class we will explore them and how to work with them effectively. Bring your art kits with whatever medium you work in and of course any earth colors you may have collected.