Celebrate a Color-Yellow Ochre!

-

  Happy New Year!   Now that we're done with the recent forty days and nights of rain we can enjoy one of life's treats--Autumn in New York. Julia Glass, in her novel Vigil Harbor said, 

"October in New York reminds people to renew their vows to stay forever."

So let's be sure to take some long walks.  You may remember the architectural tour I posted in 2019, 

An Architectural Tour of NYC

Here are two great buildings I left out.  If you stumble upon either of these you might think you're not in New York City but somewhere in Europe.  

Here's the Old Police Building at 240 Centre Street between Grand and Broome Streets


And First Baptist Church, at Broadway and 79th Street.



As another way to celebrate Autumn I'm moved to write about my favorite calligraphy ink. It's been my go-to material ever since I branched out from Black and White. People would ask if I ever filled in my black and white drawings with color and no, that really doesn't work; it would be too coloring book-y. With color I need a much more neutral starting point. 

Enter Windsor Newton Yellow Ochre! It's perfect for preliminary outlines as it can be very light and it dries swiftly, allowing me to erase the previous pencil guidelines without making a mess.  If I apply a little more thickly it's a nice rich brown.  Dilute it and it has a beautiful range of golden browns and tans. 



 This piece is making me much happier than the blue one did.  Maybe it's true what they say about the blues.

 I looked for Ochre in Kassia St. Clair's The Secret Live of Color which my friend, Mara, turned me on to. I'm sad to say ochre gets short shrift here and that irks me--look at the array of tones she mentioned! All these and Ochre gets only passing mention.  Humph.


Wikipedia had more to say. Ochre is an earthy pigment containing ferrous oxide, varying from light yellow to brown or red. Yellow and red ochre pigment was used in prehistoric and ancient times by many different civilizations on different continents. Evidence of the processing of ochre in Africa and Europe has been dated by archaeologists to 300,000 years ago; evidence of use in Australia is dated to 50,000 years ago, and new research has uncovered evidence in Asia that is dated to 40,000 years ago.

This yellow ochre horse,  found in the cave paintings  at Lescaux is estimated to be 17,000 years old. 




In ancient Egypt, yellow was associated with gold, which was considered to be eternal and indestructible.


The Romans used yellow ochre in their paintings to represent gold and skin tones, and red as a background color. It is found frequently in the murals of Pompeii.


Ocher or ochre?  Ocher is the American spelling;  it's ochre in the rest of the world and my ink is made in France so for me it's ochre. Thank you also, Daler Rowney Indian Yellow! 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Does Inspiration Come?

-
Image
“One’s work is nothing but the long journey through life to recover, through the detours of art, the one or two great and simple images that first gained access to one’s heart.”                                                                                                       Robert Beverly Hale quoting Albert Camus The first time I heard this quote, at an Art Student's League dinner, I thought, "Well, that doesn't apply to me." I was deep into my bird period; drawing their feather patterns was great practice for my pen technique but I wasn't a bird watcher or anything.  Then I went home for a visit and my mother said, "Let's have a slideshow. She pulled out all the old family ...
Read more

I'm Keeping' on the Sunny Side

-
Image
 Good Morning!  I was thinking about posting a reprise of an old post about PINK, to keep the Barbie vibe going; I understand that in London they've painted all the red telephone booths pink and the great Ferris wheel has pink lights in honor of Her Plasticness but I had a better idea--you could say the Sun came up! You know I have a granddaughter named Sunny, right? I wanted to do a drawing for her and what else could I start with? The Sun and sunflowers--not very original but she's two and a half--to her everything's new and it's her name! Filling in the sky I see that it looks like the way I draw water, but that's OK.  I added Batchelor Buttons beneath the Sunflowers and I like the way the blue makes the yellow pop.  I'm not sure how to handle the transition from flowers to sky so I won't think about it.  Remember Mickey Rivers; "I don't worry about what I can control because if I can control it why worry?" And I'm in control! I used som...
Read more

Summer Reading

-
Image
What are you Reading?  I love it when someone asks me that. The Times Book Review has a column that asks what's on your night table?  Does everybody read in bed?  If I have a good book I can't wait to say good-night. But as reading and writing has made me focus on language an abyss of bad grammar has opened before   me and I cry out in anguish. Will I ever become inured to hearing Ivy League graduates on NPR saying, "Him and Me are gonna..." and "Please reach out to John or I?" Terry Gross never corrects anyone's grammar and I respect  that,  it's not a good interviewing technique,  but where are the mothers and teachers?  How has it come to this? And another thing! The misplaced modifier!   In a biography of Willa Cather I read, "At the age of eight, school began to bore Willa."  Really? School was eight years old?  Miss Cather is rolling over in her grave.  And this, from Elle Decor; "As a young girl, her father affectionatel...
Read more