Most of the earth pigments are synthetic nowadays, made from iron ore products in a chemical factory, however, there are still a few natural pigment mines around the world. France is famous for its ochre mines that have been in operation since antiquity and some are still function today. Ochre is the base mineral that is used to make pigments such as yellow ochre, burnt (red) ochre, and siennas (raw and burnt). The word burnt signifies a heating process that drives off the water from the chemical structure and shifts it to the orange and red hues. In the painting, I depicted a natural ochre mine in amongst the sand cliffs of Provence, the southern region of France best known for its wine and food. To make the painting I literally used French yellow ochre, along with a variety of other ochres, umbers, and siennas.
I didn't write much about France in this blog, most of us know a lot about France, more say, than we knew about Djibouti or Eritrea. I have noticed an inequity in how much literature a country gets at the library, the popular tourist destinations have a whole lot more information out there than the small countries. The bitter irony is that many colonial countries like France extracted culture from their colonies and brought it back to their homeland. Lately there are moves to keep de-colonizing, such as returning island territories to the indigenous peoples and re-repatriating artifacts. At least the ochre seems to be native to France, I can imagine stone aged painters going to the pigment makers to buy some French ochre just like I did.
Note, I never blogged about version 1, it was similar but in reverse and more yellow, on WC paper. Version 1 is No. 2986a.
World Inspired Landscapes: France version 2, watercolour 6 x 8" cold press, April 2022 (No. 2996)
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