Making Paint - Experimenting With Found Rock II

Rock from Mt. Piddington, Mount Victoria, NSW Australia

This is my second attempt at making paint from rock That I collected while climbing. This rock was a lot softer than the one from Leura. I was able to grind it fairly evenly to the consistency of sand. Lagridge Refined Linseed Oil was used as the binder. The resultant paint seemed to have mixed wel on the glass plate. However, when applying it to canvas, the paint was clumpy. The pigment appeared to be separating from the oil, a few minutes after it was made. I am looking into the geophysical characteristics between Leura and Mt. Victoria for any insight into why the rocks would have such different characteristics. At this point, I know that both rocks are sandstone and come from the Blue Mountains in Australia only 19.7 km apart from each other.

Materials

Rock - 'Pink Ochre' (from Mt. Piddington, NSW) - 3 Tblsp and 1 tsp

Langridge Refined Linseed Oil - 4 1/4 tsp

Mortar and Pestle

Colander

2 Palette Knives

Small Measuring Spoons

Muller and Glass Plate

37mL empty Paint Tube

Art Spectrum Odorless Solvent - for clean up

Photo Documentation

The fact that this paint could not be smoothly applied to canvas is intriguing. I am waiting for a library book that covers the geophysical characteristics of the Blue Mountains. Hopefully that will shed some light on the difference between rock from Leura and Mt. Victoria. See below for a side by side comparison.

Leura Paint Sample

Mt. Victoria Paint Sample

Leura Paint

Mt. Victoria Paint

Leura Pigment

Mt. Victoria Pigment

Leura Rock

Mt. Victoria Rock

Making Paint Or Trying To - Leaves and Flowers

Attempt #1 - Making paint with leaves and flowers.

The other day, I decided to grind up fallen flowers and leaves. Neither of these attempts went well. The flowers were still alive and wet, while the leaves were dead and crunchy. I will let the mashed flowers dry on paper for a few days. As for the leaves, I may have to take them to a science lab for some grinding with liquid nitrogen... Or maybe I could get a pepper grinder to do some of the work... Feel free to share your ideas with me.

Photo Documentation

Making Paint with Flowers

Making Paint with Dried Leaves

I will have to do some more thinking on how to use leaves and flowers in paint making....