Exploring Ancient Earths
Our Ancient Earth Color Set is an opportunity for exploring ancient earths and to experience the characteristic nuance of traditional earth pigments.
Mined from old world quarries, the authentic natural earth pigments we have imported from France, Italy and Cyprus are the inspiration for this set. Our passion for Old Master paintings on view over the years, in renown museums here in New York and abroad, drove our desire to obtain these amazing pigments and offer this collection for both portrait and landscape painting.
Louvre Museum, Paris
Ochres Beaming Light
Our French Golden Ochre and French Ochre Havane, found in the Ancient Earth Color Set, offer subtle warmth and control in mixing flesh tones. Unlike Raw Siennas, these delicate yellow earth pigments will not deepen value and are useful when working with lighter skin tones.
The French Golden Ochre, shown below at right, is warm and transparent, producing radiant tints with white, and can even suggest the glow of gold or golden fabrics in a painting.
also tinted at bottom with our Flake White.
Warm and Cool Red Earths
A fiery natural red earth from Italy, our Rosso Ercolano is the warmer of the two red earth pigments found in the Ancient Earth Color Set. Full of light, Rosso Ercolano is a delicately nuanced semi-transparent earth useful in flesh tones or where a more orange red is desired.
Rembrandt employed natural earth pigments, especially orange reds, in his works: as a warm ground color, in layered passes, and in later works combined with other lake (transparent) colors. In his self-portrait above, he uses his skill as a Master printmaker using a dry point tool to scratch into the wet paint and reveal the warm red ground below to achieve the fine red lines of his auburn hair.
As a deep natural red earth, our French Indian Red is earthier and more nuanced than our regular Indian Red. It’s the cooler mixing red earth in the Ancient Earth Color Set, and has a wide range of mixing capacity as a warm reddish brown with cool maroon undertone and tints.
Natural Green Earths
Our Terre Verde Ancienne and Terre Verde Brentonico are characteristically transparent, subtle in mixing and full of texture as genuine natural green earth pigments. Used since antiquity, natural green earths provided a complementary base to the pinks and reds of Medieval portrait painters when applied in under layers and to enhance shadow.
Because they are so subtle and fast drying, painters through the ages have employed these fairly neutral and delicate greens as drying agents for other pigments.
Each is tinted with our Flake White at bottom
Warm Cyprus Umbers
Completing the Ancient Earth Color Set are two amazing natural brown earths from Cyprus, one burnt and one raw.
Our Cyprus Umber Red is a medium deep, burnt natural brown earth that’s warmer and more subtle in mixing than our Red Umber. It’s also more delicate than our Transparent Red Oxide, offering greater control in deepening mixtures while adding just a touch of color and warmth.
Delicate and warm, our Cyprus Umber Green is a medium deep, raw natural brown earth that’s wonderful for adding nuance to mixtures where you want the slightest more warmth and shadow.
Museo del Prado, Madrid
As you can see, the Ancient Earth Color Set provides subtle shifts in tone and value that are hard to achieve with earth colors that are more opaque or the modern Synthetic Iron Oxides. We hope you enjoy exploring the ancient earths favored throughout art history in this 8-color selection.
Visit our website to find our Ancient Earth Color Set!
