March 10th

10:00am-2:00pm

Prior to the mid 1800’s, all artists made their own pigments from ground raw materials and mixed them with oil to make their own paint. Oil paint in tubes bought from an art shop are a relatively new development.

Paint making is lots of fun and very satisfying! Making your own paints gives you an understanding of the basic structure of paint and allows you to gain more control over your own painting technique. 

Not only does this practice allow for a more complete control over the performance and quality of one's materials, it also enables the artist to achieve specific painterly effects used by the masters, the subtleties of which are often difficult to achieve using synthetic modern materials.

What to Expect:

You can expect a fun and interactive, hands-on learning environment. In this practical workshop we will be rediscovering the lost skill of creating our own oil paints from scratch. Participants will be guided through the process of making oil paints by hand. We will explore the different types of pigments used to make oil paints and learn about the origin and history of those pigments. We will also touch on the chemical structure of different raw materials used to make paint and the way these pigments interact with oil to become paint.

Students will leave with a full set of 6 hand ground colours and an appreciation hand made materials, as well as stronger arm muscles!

About the Tutor

Sophie Haythornthwaite spent four years in Florence, Italy, studying traditional oil painting techniques of the Renaissance and Baroque. 

Sophie continues to work in the methods of the old masters. She creates high quality painting materials that she prepares herself in her studio, grinding her own pigments and preparing her own canvases, mediums and varnishes using traditional methods and recipes.

Sophie specialises in portraiture, she also paints still life, landscape and figurative works.and has a studio in the Blue Mountains, NSW.

For more information about Sophie please visit;

www.sophiehaythornthwaite.com.au

What is Included

Students will be provided with the materials needed to make ten tubes of high quality archival oil paints.

Materials supplied will be:

- 6 empty titanium paint tubes with labels

- 6 sachets of powdered pigment in the three primary colours (Red, Yellow, Blue), plus Black and White, as well as additional colours useful to a basic artists palette.

- Linseed Oil

- Refreshments and snacks are provided

The additional equipment needed to create the paint will be provided (muller and slab, mortar and pestle, palette knives, cotton face masks, rags and paper towels, turpentine for cleaning up)

Students should bring:

-

• Apron or old clothes (this can get messy!)

• Cotton gloves

• Bring your own lunch

Please note: 

Many traditional paint pigments, including sadly many very beautiful colours, are highly toxic, especially in powder form. We will be restricting ourselves to only non toxic pigments for this class!