Iron Oxide Brick Houses

Certain paint pigments are commonly used in construction materials such as the iron oxides. The house on the left was done using iron oxide red/brown with a touch of red and black paint. On the right, it was raw sienna, goethite, and a touch of carbon black. Chances are that the bricks themselves included similar pigments which are created from iron oxide slag waste produced in the steel industry. Iron oxides are also the pigments that indigenous people used in rock art thousands of years ago, which goes to show how resilient the pigments are. The main advantages are that they are lightfast (dont fade in sunlight), are resistant to chemicals like acids, and they do not easily degenerate over time. Iron oxide colours include shades of beige and brown that look yellow, red, orange, dark brown, and even dark red/violet and some have a blue-grey appearance. 

Iron Oxide Brick Houses NDG 5 x 8" cold press watercolour, December 2020