Expanding my bases around the world has also meant establishing more formal studio spaces in which to work (though I use this term in the loosest sense imaginable). Recently requiring several outings to peruse the familiarly tapering aisles almost mandatory for any self-respecting art shop.
Though I feel just at home around Daler-Rowney and Winsor and Newton as I do with Chanel and Louboutin, I was, for the first time, struck by the sheer spectrum of colours available. Novelties like fluorescent colours may be less than a century old, but everywhere we look, there is so much colour in the world, that it is hard to imagine how artists of previous centuries survived with even more limited palettes to depict it with. There are claims that in ancient Greece, humans' eyes were not developed enough to see a wider spectrum, and that Homer was only able to describe a handful of colours in his writings. It seems dubious that this would have lasted past the A.D. marker or if it was ever true. It lends even more credibility to the old masters, to realise they had much less to work with when creating some of the worlds masterpieces.
Though some colours are considered a bit pricey today, it is nothing in comparison to the astronomical costs of pigments past. Namely ultramarine, the most expensive pigment in the history of paint and considered the holiest for this reason. Extracted from semi-precious lapis-lazuli it was as expensive as gold. Strictly reserved for religious depictions, only big-daddy patrons, usually the church, could afford swathes of canvas covered in it, a bit like covering your walls with Hermes Birkin quality crocodile leather by hand. By Jean-Paul Gaultier's hands to be precise.
Fortunately, for reasons of hygiene, a chemical replacement was made for the aptly named indian-yellow which was originally made from the urine of cattle fed exclusively on mangoes. In a future incarnation a holy Hindu cow wouldn't be bad. I cannot help thinking this colour might have cropped up in Chris Ofili's work had it been available today. It would be nice to have the upper-hand on critics when it comes to pissing all over your work. Critic-proof. Sort of.
"Jetset Violet"
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