Starting a thread about handmade paints, as I know there is a lot of interest in these!
Handmade paints from Bristle Brush Paints @bristlebrushpaints @islamicillumination
What a treat… they look like dessert!
Each paint individually wrapped and such a pleasure to open. Particularly looking forward to the green earth!
Handmade paints! Aaaah! They should invent a word that means overwhelm but with a positive connotation. (Anticiwhelm? Prowhelm? Merriwhelm?) As in, there's just SO MUCH cool stuff to study and try out, and it's exciting. That's how I feel about handmade paints! Having pretty much only drawn my whole life, I'm just trying to get my basic bearings with gouache and watercolor. But I really, really look forward to checking out the handmades and trying my own hand at it too! Great pic, btw.
Yes, I'm completely flabberwhelmed by the choices out there ;-) ok merriwhelmed works for me. It's the fact that paints are dry then liquid then dry that is still a kind of magic for me, as it has been since childhood. Just the idea that you've left a mark behind you in the world. 'To paint is to remember' - and also a sign that you were there, you existed. She has some other colours now, you can check her site @bristlebrushpaints as she's always got new colours up her sleeve. I look forward to trying them too!
I have never thought about the magic of going from dry to wet to dry again. That is a wonderful way of imagining the process. When I was studying textile art and working in the dye lab, things like indigo being made from leaves, and cochineal from insect shells and so on seemed pretty amazing. We also had sublimation crayons, where there is no liquid state: the color goes from a solid to a gas. I suppose that is just chemical magic/modern alchemy. As I am enthralled by color in all its forms, color is like food to me!
Sounds like you have a lot of experience with natural dyes @Mary Yaeger - what a fabulous mental archive to have! I looked up sublimation crayons as that's right up my street, they sound... sublime ;-) Yes, I know what you mean, colour is definitely like food!
I love Esra's paints :) I've still not used mine yet - they feel too nice to use, haha. I'm also new to painting Nadia and I've been learning about colours. They're fascinating! I can recommend the books:
- Chromatopia, David Coles
- The Secret Lives of Colour, Kassia St Clair
- The Alchemy of Paint, Spike Bucklow
I've started foraging and grinding down earth and rocks to experiment with. Just for swatches, not for painting with as I have no clue! They look yummy though :)
Looks like a great collection!