Forget pristine tubes of cadmium red or cobalt blue for a moment. The world around us is literally bursting with colour, often hiding in plain sight in the most unexpected materials. Think about the fiery blush on discarded metal, the deep richness of the earth beneath our feet, or the vibrant powders lining our kitchen spice racks. These humble substances – rust, soil, and spices – represent a treasure trove of pigments, connecting us to ancient artistic practices and offering a sustainable, deeply personal way to create colour.
Exploring these unconventional pigments isn’t just about finding cheap alternatives to store-bought paints; it’s an adventure. It’s about seeing potential where others see decay or just dirt. It involves a hands-on process of gathering, processing, and transforming raw materials into usable colour, fostering a unique relationship between the artist, the material, and the environment.
The Fiery Tones of Decay: Harnessing Rust
Rust, that familiar reddish-brown coating on neglected iron or steel, is essentially iron oxide. Chemically speaking, it’s the result of iron reacting with oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture. While often seen as a nuisance, a sign of decay, this very process creates a surprisingly potent and permanent pigment. Historically, iron oxides are among the oldest pigments used by humankind, found in cave paintings dating back tens of thousands of years. Natural ochres, which we’ll discuss later, are essentially earth rich in iron oxides.
Getting usable pigment from rust requires a little effort, but it’s straightforward. You can collect rust flakes from old tools, fences, or scrap metal (always get permission if it’s not your property!). The collected rust needs to be cleaned of any grease or non-rusty debris. The crucial step is grinding it into a fine powder. A dedicated mortar and pestle works best. The finer you grind the rust, the smoother your resulting paint or colour wash will be.
Handle rust powder with care. While iron oxide itself is relatively stable, the fine dust can be irritating if inhaled. Always wear a dust mask when grinding or handling powdered rust. Ensure any scrap metal you collect rust from hasn’t been treated with toxic coatings like lead paint.
The colour of rust pigment isn’t just one shade. Depending on the specific type of iron oxide formed (influenced by factors like hydration level), you can achieve a range of colours from bright orange-reds and deep brick reds to warmer browns and even yellowish hues. It’s known for its opacity and excellent lightfastness, meaning colours made with rust won’t easily fade over time. Once powdered, rust can be mixed with various binders – linseed oil for oil paint, gum arabic for watercolour, acrylic medium, or even egg yolk for traditional tempera – to create durable paints.
Down to Earth: The Rich Palette of Soil
When we talk about soil as pigment, we’re really tapping into the vast world of earth pigments. These are naturally occurring minerals dug directly from the ground, composed primarily of clays mixed with varying amounts of metal oxides – particularly iron and manganese oxides. These are the original paints, used across continents and cultures for millennia. Think of the famous ochres (yellow, red, brown), siennas (yellowish-brown, turning reddish-brown when heated – burnt sienna), and umbers (dark brown, turning darker when heated – burnt umber).
The beauty of earth pigments lies in their sheer variety and connection to place. Soil from different regions yields distinct colours. Volcanic areas might offer deep reds and blacks, while clay-rich soils can provide yellows, creams, and soft browns. Finding your own earth pigments involves looking for richly coloured soil or clay deposits – often visible in road cuts, riverbanks, or construction sites (again, seek permission and be mindful of safety and environmental impact).
From Dirt to Pigment
Processing soil into pigment is a rewarding, albeit sometimes messy, process:
- Collection: Gather clumps of promisingly coloured earth, avoiding too much organic matter like roots and leaves.
- Drying: Let the collected earth dry completely, either in the sun or a low oven.
- Crushing: Break down the dried clumps into smaller pieces.
- Grinding: Use a mortar and pestle to grind the earth into a powder. A mask is essential here too, to avoid inhaling silica dust present in many soils.
- Sieving: Sift the powder through a fine mesh sieve to remove larger particles and impurities.
- Levigation (Optional but Recommended): This process further refines the pigment. Mix the powder with plenty of water in a jar, stir vigorously, and let it settle. The heaviest particles (sand, grit) will sink first. Carefully pour off the coloured water into another jar, leaving the grit behind. Let the fine pigment particles settle in the second jar over hours or days, then carefully pour off the clear water from the top and let the remaining pigment sludge dry out completely. This results in a much smoother, purer pigment.
Earth pigments represent humanity’s oldest art supplies. Archaeological evidence confirms the use of ochres and other earth-based colours in cave paintings, pottery decoration, and body art dating back over 70,000 years. Their durability and widespread availability made them fundamental to artistic expression across diverse ancient cultures worldwide. These pigments are remarkably stable and lightfast.
Like rust, processed earth pigments are incredibly versatile. They mix well with most binders, creating opaque, beautifully textured paints. Their natural origin gives them an inherent harmony and subtlety that can be difficult to replicate with synthetic colours. Experimenting with soils from your local area can lead to a unique palette that tells a story of your specific environment.
The Spice of Life (and Art): Kitchen Colors
Venturing into the kitchen reveals another source of potent colour: spices. While perhaps less permanent than mineral-based pigments, spices offer an explosion of vibrant hues that are readily accessible and often delightfully fragrant. Think of the intense golden yellow of turmeric, the fiery reds and oranges of paprika, or the luxurious yellow derived from precious saffron threads.
Using spices as pigments is generally straightforward. Most are already powdered, though you might want to grind them finer yourself for smoother application. Simply mix the spice powder with a chosen binder. However, there’s a significant caveat: lightfastness. Many organic colourants found in spices are fugitive, meaning they will fade, sometimes quite rapidly, when exposed to light.
Common Spice Pigments:
- Turmeric: Provides a brilliant, almost fluorescent yellow. Unfortunately, it’s notoriously prone to fading and can shift colour in alkaline conditions (like mixing with traditional gesso). Best used for temporary work or pieces kept out of direct light.
- Paprika: Offers a range of warm reds and oranges, depending on the variety (sweet, smoked, hot). It tends to be slightly more lightfast than turmeric but can still fade over time. The colour can be rich and earthy.
- Saffron: Produces a beautiful, transparent golden yellow. Historically used in manuscript illumination. Its extremely high cost makes it impractical for large-scale use, and it is also susceptible to fading.
- Annatto Seeds (Achiote): Ground seeds yield a strong yellow-orange to reddish-orange colour. Often used as a food colourant, it can be used as a pigment but also has lightfastness issues.
- Cinnamon/Nutmeg: Provide warm, subtle browns, useful for creating earthy tones or washes. Their lightfastness is generally better than the brighter spices.
Spices are perhaps best suited for sketchbooks, art journaling, craft projects, or temporary installations where longevity isn’t the primary goal. They can also be used to make inks or dyes by steeping them in water or alcohol, though the permanence issue remains. The ephemeral nature of spice colours can even be embraced conceptually, creating art that changes and evolves over time.
Working With Nature’s Palette
Regardless of whether you’re using rust, soil, or spices, the basic principle is the same: you have a dry powder (the pigment) that needs to be mixed with a liquid or medium (the binder) to make it adhere to a surface and form a paint film. The binder surrounds the pigment particles and glues them together and to the support (paper, canvas, wood, etc.).
Grinding: As mentioned, a mortar and pestle are invaluable tools. Grind patiently for the finest possible powder – this vastly improves the quality and handling of your paint. Always wear a dust mask, especially with soil and rust.
Choosing a Binder:
- Gum Arabic: Mix the powder with a solution of gum arabic and water (add a drop of clove oil or honey as a preservative/plasticizer) to create watercolour or gouache-like paints.
- Oils: Linseed oil, walnut oil, or poppy oil can be mixed with the pigment powder (mull it with a glass muller on a slab for best results) to create traditional oil paints.
- Egg Yolk: Mixed with pigment and a little water, this creates classic egg tempera, known for its luminosity and quick drying time.
- Acrylic Mediums: Various acrylic gels and mediums can be used to bind the pigments for use like acrylic paints.
- Simple Glues/Water: For basic crafts or temporary uses, even PVA glue diluted with water can act as a binder.
Testing: Always test your homemade paint. Check the colour, texture, drying time, and how well it adheres to your chosen surface. Make colour swatches and note the pigment source and binder used. For spices, consider doing a lightfastness test by painting a swatch, covering half of it, and leaving it in a sunny window for a few weeks to observe any fading.
Working with these natural, unusual pigments is a journey back to basics. It connects you directly to the earth and the fundamental materials of art-making. The subtle variations, the textures, the process of discovery – these all become part of the artwork itself. Whether you’re grinding ochre dug from a nearby hillside, carefully collecting flakes of rust, or experimenting with the vibrant hues of your spice rack, you’re participating in a tradition as old as human creativity itself. So look around, explore, and see what colours your world has waiting for you.
