Minerals

A two hour session for all the group members to meet and set intentions for the year going forward.

Hosted by Lucy Mayes

Amidst the rising cacophony of ecological disturbance, many of us, and particularly artists, have turned to foraged materials to satisfy our spiritual desire for connection with Nature and to hopefully redress some of the issues of needless extraction, overconsumption and subsequent pollution underlying and fuelling the apparent and ongoing poly-crisis. However, despite the many and various romantic and redemptive notions of communications with an animate earth, gathering and working with ochres is more often guided by practical knowledge and ethical and ecological considerations.

This presentation, founded on Pete’s 20-year’s-experience working with ochres and his ongoing PhD research, will outline some of the considerations revealed when gathering ochres and other natural materials, and the many and diverse insights offered through a dedicated, devotional practice. His presentation will draw upon aspects of Indigenous Knowledge and UK Law, alongside his own experience, hopefully provoking some controversy and topics for further discussion.

Walk through the growth of a personal, artist's mineral pigment collection: how mine and others' mineral practices started, grew, changed and are used, whether for art, science, teaching, research, personal interest, cultural practice or a mixture of all of these. 

We will look at how to process, store and share pigments, including abundant clays, widely encountered rocks and soils, and the waste stream minerals and mineral derived pigments found in rural and urban environments. 

We will explore via demonstration the levigation process for earths and soft rocks to contrast with ceramic pestle and mortar grinds for semi precious minerals, as well as covering liquid-use mesh sieves, dry use screens, a grind gauge to test how finely we have prepared our pigments, and more. With ample time for questions, this session aims to leave you confident to navigate your own unique pathway through mineral pigments, hopefully strewn with an abundance of beautiful rocks!

This session introduces the mineral spectrum of natural pigments, exploring how coloured minerals have shaped the palettes of artists from ancient civilizations to contemporary practice. We will examine the geological origins of mineral colour and the ways in which local geology and chemistry influence hue, stability, and permanence. Particular attention will be given to the main mineral groups that give colour, including iron-oxide ochres, iron-phosphate vivianite, copper-carbonate minerals such as malachite and azurite, purple ochres, calcareous white earths, and complex silicate green earths.

We will also explore how raw minerals are transformed into usable artists’ pigments through traditional preparation and extraction techniques. A live demonstration will introduce processes such as crushing, grinding, levigation, and water sorting, showing how impurities are separated from fine pigment particles to produce stable, high-quality colour. The session will also touch on historical methods involving animal- and plant-derived glues and soaps, connecting geology and mineral chemistry with the practical knowledge of pigment makers and artists.

This session explores how historical pigments are connected to specific geological environments and how artists can learn to read the landscape to locate useful materials in situ. We will examine the formations and conditions in which key colour-bearing minerals develop, from copper oxidation zones containing malachite and azurite to anaerobic environments associated with vivianite and sedimentary deposits rich in iron ochres. Alongside these primary colourants, we will also consider the overlooked value of less colourful minerals and refining byproducts, including silica-rich rocks and quartz, and how these materials can be repurposed as structural fillers, textured grounds, and surface modifiers.

Through live demonstration and hands-on material review, the session will show how field-collected geological materials can be sorted, processed, and characterised for different artistic uses. We will cover practical methods for reading geological maps, identifying visual indicators such as staining and exposed layers, and separating pigment-bearing material from useful non-pigmentary stone. Attendees will also examine raw samples alongside processed pigments and fillers, learning to recognise differences in texture, grit, crystalline structure, and working properties, and to understand how both colour and structure can be harvested from the geological landscape.

When Carolyn talks to people about foraging for mineral pigments she tells them to look for clay. It is widely available, grinds up beautifully, and has a small particle size. The more she works with clay the more uses she find for it. The sticky quality of clay can bind pastels or serve as it’s own paint binder. We’ll discuss how the molecular structure of clay insures the longterm stability of Maya Blue pigment, which is made from specific types of clay and botanical indigo. She will also demonstrate how to make a usable paint-like material with nothing but clay and water.

Bideford Black is one of several names bestowed upon a unique coal-based clay mined as a pigment in North Devon for 200 years until 1969. This presentation will share insights revealed through Pete’s personal experience and research working with this generous but stubborn ochre over the last 20 years. It will include information about its formation and social history alongside stories from those who mined and used it, it’s active role in the natural colour revival and Pete’s own ongoing relationship with this renowned silky-black ochre from his matrilineal ancestral home.

Graphite is the first mark making material Carolyn came to love, and even now her favourite drawing tool might still be a simple pencil. Graphite is also a pigment that can be used to make silky smooth crayons or pastels. And yes, a graphite pastel is perfectly erasable! We’ll discuss the history and geology of graphite to give context to this ever-present pigment.

Calcium carbonate occurs widely in the natural world – limestone, marble, seashells, eggshells and even cuttlefish bones are composed largely of it. Chalk is the fluffiest, finely textured variety of calcium carbonate, useful in the studio as a white pigment, painting ground, and extender. It can also be found in pastel sticks and contributes to their characteristic texture. This session will discuss geology, sources, preparation, refractive index, and applications of chalk.

Of all the carbon present on our planet, the great majority is sequestered in limestone: compressed white drifts of the uncountable exoskeletons of coccoliths, husks of corals, and seashells of all sorts.

This ancient white stone is useful because it can loop through a series of transformations in a complete somersault called the Limestone Cycle. It finds different applications as it transitions through the phases, from limelight and limewash, to fresco and lithography. Learn about the potentialities of limestone and how to harness them in the studio, just as artists have for thousands of years.

This presentation discusses the millennia-long importance places where materials are obtained hold in Indigenous cultures of the Americas. In the past, the places where one obtained materials such as a pigment, were as, or more important than the material itself or the object for which it was used. Indigenous people had intimate knowledge of places that encompassed generations of relationships with these places and contributed to generational knowledge alongside the empirical knowledge one gained from their own relationship with a place. Every place had its own spiritual, physical and other characteristics that contributed to the significance of a place, but which were also inherent in the materials obtained there. This in turn gave the materials those attributes and influenced not only the type of object on which they were used, but also the purpose of the object.

Image: Duk tootle gass house post, Whale House Alaska

A two hour session for all the group members to share their reflections on the past year together and set intentions for the future.

Hosted by Lucy Mayes