Wild Pigment Sessions
Class recordings with Lucy Mayes and Caroline Ross
We’ve recently received a lot of questions about working earth pigments, so we have dug in to our archives and brought together 12 hours of video demonstrations and talks on pigment foraging and processing.
You can join to access the sessions individually, or together as a bundle.
Earth Pigments Of Britain: Part One
An online talk with Lucy Mayes
Two hour class recording
We often hear about the incredible ancient cave paintings in France, South Africa, and Australia, but have you ever considered our how ochres have historically been used in Britain?
Despite our damp climate, ancient signs of cave paintings can be found in Creswell crags, with tools and containers found in sites such as Star Carr and Blick Mead, uncovering the fascinating use of earth pigments by prehistoric communities in the UK. These traces of pigment provide a unique window into the everyday lives and cultural practices of early inhabitants, offering a tangible connection to their artistic expressions in ancient Britain.
Join Lucy for a deep dive into the fascinating world of ochres from England, Wales and Scotland. Earth pigments, particularly ochre, carry a legacy that spans millennia. They connect us to the geological and cultural history of the British Isles, offering a palette that reflects the diversity and richness of the land.
In this session, Lucy will take you on an odyssey across the British Isles, traversing landscapes from the wet tawny clays of London to the vivid reds reminiscent of The Red Lady of Paviland and the mystique of abandoned mines in the north of England.
Earth Pigments of Britain: Part Two
An online talk with Lucy Mayes
Two hour class recording
Join Lucy for the second instalment of her series, Earth Pigments of Britain. In this session, she will expand on her earlier exploration of earth pigment use across the British Isles. Delve into the customs and folklore associated with earth and iron, and discover how these natural materials have shaped traditions.
A special feature will spotlight contemporary creative practitioners in the U.K. who are revitalizing these traditions in innovative ways. Lucy will also share an exclusive glimpse into her studio in Portsmouth, showcasing key earth pigments from her personal collection and demonstrating their unique qualities using specific tools and techniques to examine their potential for use as pigments.
PDF handout included.
Pigments For Paints - A Deep Dive
An Online Class With Caroline Ross
Two x two hour recordings of live video demonstrations
Working with rocks, clays, semi precious stones and (pre-made) plant lakes. Sourcing, finding, foraging and selecting sources and materials. Then testing, smashing, grinding, washing (levigation), sieving, drying, braying, mulling of pigments. Calcining (cooking) ochres to obtain a larger range of colours.
Sharing kitchen and household tools only simple methods so you do not need to buy lots of specialist equipment, as well as sharing refined tools methods.
Learning Resources will be provided including a reading list, basic instructions of what was covered as well as a glossary of any unfamiliar terms. This will be supplied during the week after the second session, so that it can be tailored to what people asked.
PDF Handout Included
Art Materials Fundamentals, Binders & Pigments
An online class with Lucy Mayes
Two hour recording
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.
Burning Earths For Colour
An online class with Lucy Mayes
Two hour recording
Delve deeper into making calcined earths in this session, building on the insights shared in Lucy's talk, Fundamentals: Binders and Pigments. Explore an array of recipes for crafting a diverse spectrum of iron oxide pigments, drawn from various raw source materials, and uncover their vibrant possibilities. She will discuss the chemistry behind the calcining process and explore how heat influences the properties of pigments. By understanding these effects, makers can refine their pigment production to suit specific applications and achieve tailored results.
Lucy will also provide a live demonstration of the calcining process, bringing the transformation of earth pigments to life.
JOIN ALL THE SESSIONS
Session recordings with Caroline Ross and Lucy Mayes 12 hours of video demonstrations and talks
Meet The Teachers
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Caroline Ross
Caroline Ross is an artist, writer and teacher living by the sea in Bournemouth. Her debut book ‘Found and Ground: A Practical Guide to Making your own Foraged Paints’ was published by Search Press in June 2023. She is writing the follow up about ancient and foraged drawing materials, ‘Drawn From the Wild’ to be published spring 2025. Using what nature provides and repurposing what humans discard are a large part of her practice. After the rooks have feasted on the riverbank, the empty mussel shells become paint palettes. The seasonally moulted flight feathers of local swans and geese become quill pens and brushes. Chalk dug out from their setts by badgers is left in piles in the woods, where she gathers it and take it home to make gouache. Caroline makes paints from foraged earth pigments from around the UK, and art tools and inks from natural, wild, and found materials such as oak galls, rusty nails, elderberries, bay leaves and cherry tree gum. The natural fluctuations of materials and the botanical ink stains or ochre paints forming prepared grounds on paper, all suggest forms with which she works.
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Lucy Mayes
Lucy Mayes 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.
