Ochre
Ochre

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Check out one of the best resources for real ochre where this amazing room is.

This is where the ochre used to be crushed and refined for folks like Van Gogh to use, it really is that colour. It was an incredibly inspirational journey through the area. I have always adored the works of the Post Impressionists particularly Cezanne and Van Gogh their colours really spoke to me. It was a complete revelation to find that they painted the colours of their environment. The ground is those yellows and oranges the trees are scrubby in places and the silvery blue green – it truly felt like walking in a painting.

So I didn’t just buy some Ochre I picked some up from the side of the road and brought it back to the studio. There is a great satisfaction in painting with a pigment you have ground and mixed yourself.

It’s an interesting thought that mostly as artists we reflect the colour around us – when painting in France I was literally painting ‘with’ the landscape.

It feels like time to do it again. An inspiration particle hit. Watch this space.