
Old Masters: painting tricks
Rembrandt van Rijn
Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Maria Trip (1639)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam I often paint dark backgrounds. Learning about old techniques, I aspire to approximate those incredible backgrounds of 17th…

Old pigments painting blog: Lapis Lazuli
Throughout history, lapis lazuli and the blue pigment that is extracted from it have have occupied a special place in the fine and decorative arts: an expensive, semi-precious stone that for centuries was exclusively sourced fron the rather…

Old pigments painting blog: Madder Lake
My paint box: Madder Lake
My paint box is one of my favourite things: I’ve managed to exclude any paint developed after 1700, so no cadmiums or synthetic ultramarine for me. I guess that makes me a purist – it’s interesting how you…

Old pigments painting blog: Vandyke Brown
Rembrandt van Rijn, Saskia van Uylenburgh As Flora, 1641
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
inv./cat. no. 1562; Image credit: The Rembrandt Database. Old pigments…