Art Materials Fundamentals, Binders & Pigments
Recording of an online class with Lucy Mayes
This talk took place on Tuesday 12th November 2024
We know that pigment making is a moving, working body of knowledge that has an untold amount of connections and crossovers with a multitude of different disciplines. As artists we amass huge amounts of specialist knowledge and process this through our unique lenses to create emotive experiences. I believe that knowing your materials intimately can create more interesting art and much needed empathy with our more than human counterparts. Join me for this session to expound and explain fascinating goings-on in our hand made art materials.
Have you wondered what is really happening when paint dries? and why do some paints dry faster than others? Do you ponder over why your hand-made botanical inks create unusual granulating effects? What minerals and impurities could be in your earth pigments - and organisms!? How urine can create a multitude of different pigments? In this session Lucy will explore what is physically and chemically happening to our art materials as we use them. Using examples from her research she will deliver useful information about pigment particle morphology, what makes a binding medium work, historical examples and modern replacements & technologies. For the past 10 years Lucy has gleaned useful and enlightening material from diverse sources & and she hopes to share them with you.
Learning Outcomes This session will equip participants with useful knowledge & understanding relating to the experiences they might have whilst using hand-made pigments, paints and inks. It will aid creatives with a technical vocabulary in order to explain and present what is happening chemically and physically to their art materials as they use them to bring about deeper understanding of their work. This 2 hour session is by no means a complete breakdown of the fundamentals of pigments and binders ( which would be several life's work!) but serves to communicate comprehensive examinations of material transformations through the use of examples Lucy has personally worked with or experienced. The session is designed to inspire others to think deeper about their own worlds of colour and paint.
Access the resources for one year
You will receive a recording of a two hour live online class that will take place on Tuesday 12th November 4-6pm GMT. The recording will be available on Wednesday 13th November for three months until the 13th February.
You will also gain access to a PDF resources
Taught By Lucy Mayes
Lucy Mayes (b. 1991) is an artist and pigment maker & researcher working in London and Hampshire. Her work as ‘London Pigment’ uses urban waste stream materials to make recycled pigment. Her practice is centred on the use of unusual, surprising or esoteric raw materials to make colour as a way of documenting events or ‘happenings’. Verdigris made from copper wire stripped from burnt-out mopeds, soot and ash from park fires and construction rubble have all been used in her work to make new pigments. Her colour-making practice centres on creating sustainable pigments from anthropocene waste streams. She works in the capacity of pigment/colour consultant and has worked with Neptune Interiors Ltd, Jaguar Land Rover, Royal Cornwall Museum, V&A, Kew Gardens on pigment projects. She previously worked as product developer and pigment specialist at renowned colourman L.Cornelissen & Son where she developed their historical pigment archive. She teaches pigment making at institutions nationally and hopes to re-orientate our connections to colour; through the creation of intimate relationships with matter formed through embodied making.