Having survived a few cold and windy days of painting, it seemed to fitting to name this one ''blue away'. It was also a play on the idea that I was using up a few old tubes of blue paint. The main colours are phthalo blue (PB15), indo blue (PB60) and lapis lazuli (natural pigment). You can see where the lapis lazuli was used, it forms streaky, textured brush strokes due to the large pigment size and high amount of gum arabic in the formula. Next to the synthetic blues, the lapis lazuli looks dull and greyish. In antiquity lapis lazuli was the most expensive pigment, and some artists used it to great effect for example Vermeer. Now a days artists use the synthetic version called ultramarine blue (PB29), although I stopped using it in 2020 due to its instability in mild acid.
Blue Away, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, February 2023 (No. 3375a)
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