It began innocently enough with the decision to do an inventory of all my oil paint colours. This led to an investigation into pigment codes, the internationally standardised colour index names such as PV 14 (that one is Cobalt Violet). Then it was down the rabbit hole of information searching for drying times, lightfastness, opacity, working properties, toxicity, recommendations, conflicting information, incomplete information, current colours, discontinued colours, new colours... I resurfaced about 9 days later.

I'll summarise what I found. It won't take 9 days.

There are some great resources online if you want to find out about the colours that you use. No need to search around, I have some gems lined up. 

All of the resources here I have printed out and put into a folder of their own for my easy reference, along with the pigment charts from the paint manufacturers that I use or like, my inventory of the paints I have and would like to try, and my super dooper spreadsheet of all the most relevent info in one at-a-glance chart...

The excellent online resources

Art School At Home - a blog with an excellent overview of common pigments in each colour group. Written by an oil painter learning her way through the maze of information. Ideal as a first stop. The link is to the first post on the colour groups.

Pigments for making Artist's Paint - Paintmaking.com - the pigment section of this website is extraordinarily useful. Lots of information that is useful to a painter (oils, acrylic, watercolour, fresco). Goes into more depth, covers more pigments than Art School At Home and is still very accessible reading.

Oils and Pigments by Jan Esmann - pdf - free download made available by this artist who makes his own paints. Very useful, eyeopening, if more technically informative than most artists will need. Contains the sort of information that an oil painter would be interested in. A bit of history, working properties, working lightfastness, do's and don'ts etc.

Color Index Pigment Information Database - this website is a world unto itself. All the pigments used for colour are listed, broken into their colour groups (yellow, red etc). There are links to manufacturers of most of the colours, a little bit of history on the pigment, official lightfastness, toxicity, and general notes.

Dick Blick Art Supplies - on the page of each individual tubed colour is a tab of pigment info. This covers a lot of pigments. Very handy.

The Artist's Handbook by Pip Seymour - pdf - I didn't actually print this one out, but I did find it contained quite a bit of useful information when I was researching. A lot of what is in here is covered already in the other resources.

The super dooper bit

There was no one place where I could find all the information I wanted, at a glance, for oil painting. So I put it together myself. It is gathered from the above resources and about a gazillion google searches for each individual pigment. Though this is as comprehensive as I could make it, I am sure you will be able to find the odd pigment here and there that has been missed. Sorry, there are a lot of pigments in use. All the most common ones are covered. This is what really took up the 9 days of investigating. 

It's a print-friendly chart, organised by colour groups, with colour index name, common paint name, oil paint drying time, opacity, useful notes and working lightfastness. Working lightfastness? Yes. Many pigments have a high lightfastness rating on their own but fade in tints or mixes. In practice this means that they fade, as a colour is usually mixed with another.

The Oil Paint Pigment Chart - everything at a glance

You may download this pdf chart right here. Oil Paint Pigment Chart. Pass it around if you please.

Hopefully it will be useful during your next paint shopping trip.

More art technique articles

This article is one in an ongoing series of technical articles for artists, all archived together and accessible from here. The topics range from details on materials, to the business of art, to specific art techniques. Please make use of this resource.

 

Easy. Versatile. Thrifty. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Thanks to Pia, Mimi and Sara for helping out with identifying the essence of roast tomatoes.

Here are some pointers:
squishy
intense
red
charred
bursts.

Can you feel it?

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store?  If you want to get your mitts on the original, it is drying and awaiting it's professional photoshoot before being allowed in the shop.

To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

Both of these roast vegetables taste heaps better than they sound and are dead easy to make. They're also good with some mediterranean herbs sprinkled on them. The roasting brings out the flavour of the vegetable and intensifies it in a really moreish way.

Roast Tomatoes

Use as many or few tomatoes as you have or like. It's wonderful to make a large batch of these and keep them in the fridge to use in salads, or on the side of a main meal or whenever they take your fancy.

Chop tomatoes into 1/8ths and put on a baking tray in a single layer. 

Sprinkle with salt. Use the same amount of salt coverage as you would for a tomato sandwich, plus a little more.

If you like, smear the tomatoes with pesto or basil infused oil.

Bake in a 180C / 350F oven for 30-60 minutes.

Remove from the oven just as bits on the tomatoes begin to go black.

Roast Capsicum (Peppers)

As with the roast tomatoes, it's superb to do a large batch of these and have them to hand whenever you feel like a hit of their intensified flavour in your meal.

Place whole red capsicums on a baking tray in a single layer and bake in a 180C / 350F oven until the skin bubbles and starts to burn.

Remove and place in a lidded container (tongs!) so the skin is steamed off.

When cook, peel and de-seed.

Add to any salad or dish as you see fit!

Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here - this is a personal response to the work of Arthur Streeton by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.

Streeton was introduced to plein air painting by Roberts. This was a brand new thing in Australia in the 1890's. I sense an excitement and pride in these outdoor paintings, perhaps from being involved in something so new and radical? These paintings have the effect of making me wish I had been there, travelling Australia and painting outside with the little group of master painters, making history.

Another large part of my attraction to Streeton's work is the period of Symbolism that he explored. Using realistically painted landscapes and figures he could evoke an otherworldlyness that was more concerned with memory, mood or a season than ordinary reality. I really enjoy this imaginative aspect of his work, travelling in the mind. It also reminds me of Art Nouveau and the style of Alphonse Mucha.

More links to Arthur Streeton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Streeton

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.

Fresh. Versatile. Thrifty. Fun.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on board. Can you sense the translucency of the rice paper? The freshness of the fillings? The simplicity of this dish?

All artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store. This particular painting is drying and will be made available soon for $150. To find out the instant it's ready, get on the collectors list, yellow box top left.

***

Rice paper rolls, in case you haven't had the delight of trying them, are like a tasty little salad meal in an edible wrapper. Eaten cold, they are perfect for hot days. I love making these at home because I get to fill them any way I like, which incidentally is with a little cucumber, loads of lettuce, enormous quantities of mint and a touch of tofu fried in soy sauce and sherry.

This recipe is more like a collection of ingredient suggestions and some pointers on how to construct the rolls than a set of instructions. Fill them however you like!

You will need:
rice paper roll wrappers, they are usually sold in packets of at least 20 for just a few dollars and are about 20cm in diametre.
lettuce - a soft variety or finely shredded leaves to prevent tough pieces poking through the wrapper

Your choice of other fillings, here are some ideas:
cucumber, sliced in lengths
fresh coriander or vietnamese mint
fresh mint
chopped peanuts
spring onion, chopped fine
glass/vermicelli rice noodles, these often only need to be soaked in cold water to be ready to use, but follow the directions on the packet
bean sprouts
carrot, in thin sticks
egg, beaten with a little soy sauce and sherry, fried into an omelette shape and cut into strips
tempeh (as is) or tofu (preferably marinated/pre-fried - I suggest a soy sauce and sherry mix)

Suggested dipping sauces:
Peanut (mix peanut butter, a little oil, a little water and a dash each of soy sauce, chilli, sugar and sherry to taste)
Soy sauce (a dash of rice wine vinegar added in can be quite enjoyable)
Sweet chilli (fresh minced chilli or sambal oelek with a little rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar and sugar, to taste)



Construction tips:
The rice paper wrappers only need to be dipped into warm water for about 30 seconds to be ready to use. I fill my largest flat bottomed frypan with very warm water and dip the wrappers in as needed. They are ready when they have become soft and pliable, which is almost straight away. Also, they stick to themselves once ready so I never prepare a stack of them, just one by one.

I've tried adding the dipping sauce into the unwrapped roll. It doesn't work. The roll becomes very slippery and difficult to roll, sauce squirts all over the place and then the roll won't stick closed. My recommendation is to save the sauce for dipping.

To make a roll, put the soaked wrapper on a plate and fill the middle with your fillings of choice. Leave room around the edges for wrapping.
Fold over opposite 'ends' up over the filling.
Fold over one of the remaining ends also.
Now the bit that takes a little practice. It is easier to do than to explain. Roll the lot towards the final open end. Fold over and compress the fillings as necessary to make them fit.
The wrapper sticks to itself so just press the roll to itself at the end.
Here, let me show you:











3-6 rice paper rolls will make a meal for one, depending on how hungry you are, the type of fillings you use and the amount you manage to stuff into your rolls!