Where does paint come from? As with all things, from nature, of course!
Plants are premium sources of dyes ranging from such varied colors and sources as blue from indigo plants, black from oak apples or myrtle, yellow from saffron, black again from burnt wood made into charcoal, and red from madder. Minerals have proven to be a great source of colors, illustrated by rich reds from iron oxides, yellows from clays, blues and greens from finely ground lapis lazuli or malachite, and white from ground seashells.
History has yielded such fine dyed specimen as early as 2000 BC, when some Egyptian fabrics were discovered by archaeologists. However, it is safe to say that dyeing as an artistic process goes back way before that. While the ancient Egyptians have showcased impressive skill at using “fixers” to translate the dyes into such interesting patterns on cloth, the oldest dye ever used is indigo whose etymology is Spanish and pertains to “India,” where the plant grows all year round. More evidence of these early artists were unearthed: paint palettes made from stone or clay and pretty much shaped like today’s artist palettes were found attached with grinders as early as 1250 BC.
Purple dye became popular in the Mediterranean at the start of the Christian era. These came from molluscs found in the sea. They were pounded and boiled for a couple of days in a salt solution, and were considered rare. So rare were they that they were only produced to dye the robes of emperors and popes, hence the still pervading association of purple with royalty. Today’s modern artists might be familiar with this kind of purple hue with their tubs and tubes of paint minus all the labor that goes with it: the Tyrian purple.
The first synthetic dye, however, was made by one William Perkin in 1856. Then an 18-year old Chemistry student from London, he managed to make mauve from coal tar. It was such a success that he set up a factory to produce more of this color. Consequently, other man-made dyes appeared spurred on by other innovative people, and creating a richer color wheel from synthetic means. This, then, signalled the beginning of the modern chemical industry as we know it, and as artists and craftsmen have come to rely on for their paint palette needs.
Today, coming up with a work of art that can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars just means stepping into an art supply store, or ordering paint by the gallons. In fact, with the wealth of so many colors, textures, and paint effects, it’s mind-boggling that the first dyes actually came from such humble, commonplace beginnings. But in cultures more rustic and more grounded in history, dyes are still the favored color processing for things such as art, clothing, papers, and even food. Some Asian countries have incorporated dyeing to make such interesting patterns on their fabrics (called “batiks”) and to tell their histories, while plenty of American craftsmen are going back to good old-fashioned yarn-dyeing in the early American tradition.
