Saturday, February 7, 2015

Pompeii No.43: The Right Pompeian Red

commons.wikimedia.org
You may remember that when I started painting the Pompeii Room, I chose an earthy red that Sherwin Williams calls Ablaze. The Ablaze paint chip looks like the square below.

Certain paint colors — like red and yellow — can be tricky. When I study paint chips, I look at them in different lights, including taking the chip outdoors to see it in natural light. Nonetheless, the translation from chip to wall can be surprising. In my case, the almost brick red of the chip turned into a bright red on the wall.

While Ablaze was a little too bright for my specific purpose, it probably would have been the hue that the Pompeians themselves preferred.

activeartist.net  |  www.mining.com  |  commons.wkimedia.org  |  www.wildcolours.co.uk
The Pompeians derived their reds from the earth, using — from left to right — red ochre, iron ore, hematite and madder root. The image on the far left (of red ochre) is from the Wilgie Mia Mine in Australia.

Of course, when working with stuff that was quite brown in its raw state, a brighter color would be the most preferred. The best red of Pompeii was a vermilion made from the cinnabar mineral. We've come to associate the word cinnabar with fine Asian objets d'art like the box below, in the Victoria & Albert Museum.

photo by R. Weller/Cochise College  |  collections.vam.ac.uk
The Pompeian paint made from cinnabar was 16 times more expensive than the paint made from red ochre, and the raw materials to make the paint would have been supplied by the wealthy client.

Despite the prestige of a bright red made from cinnabar, I opted to use a darker red, more like red ochre. My thought was that the darker red would better complement the auburn that is the base color for the upper panels. I went with a color Sherwin Williams calls Cochineal, and above you can see the difference between the before and after.

I bought two quarts of Cochineal and began painting over the original red. To my great dismay, the darker red would not cover the brighter red! I went to Sherwin Williams (I am not remunerated for mentioning the brand), and the employees there informed me that I would need to cover the original red with a gray primer, and then paint at least three coats of the Cochineal red.

gettyimages.com
 I have to admit that for a moment I reverted to an earlier mode of expression.

Here's the wainscoting brought back to a gray primer. The paint store said I would need a least three coats of the new red, but in fact I painted four coats of Cochineal.

Here you can see the progression from Ablaze to gray to Cochineal. The Cochineal is essentially the color of the window frame's original shadow.

And here's the revised, deeper red. I still have to paint the switch plate, but I'm leaving that for a little later. In my next posting, we'll do something fun with that bar of gray, so I hope you'll check back then!
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23 comments:

  1. Hello Mark,

    Great minds .......... as they say.........for, St the moment, paint colour is also featuring largely in our own lives.

    As you say, translating from a small paint sample to the larger canvas of the wall can bring amazing changes in tints and tones, let alone the changes that come in different lights. All in all, choosing a paint colour us a very tricky business.

    However, we do prefer the darker shade of red and do feel that it complements the other colours rather better. Perhaps it is because it is the lower part of the wall and the darker colour seems to 'ground' the whole arrangement. The brighter red almost had 'lift off'!!

    But, what a performance to change the colour. This must have taken an age, let alone expense since, in our experience, quality paint comes at a premium price.

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    1. Hello, Jane and Lance,

      It's a good thing that paint companies are now selling tester paints so that one can put up a range of colors and make a better choice (and perhaps save time and money in the process). I had thought of saving a little money by just using the tester paints for the smaller areas, but was informed that they are manufactured to hold color only temporarily.

      I think yoiu are correct that the darker red becomes a more grounding base for the upper half of the mural, and because I expect to be living with it for some time, the extra time and money was well worth the revision.

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  2. Dear Mark - despite all the tears and the tantrums the cochineal is a triumph. The whole concept is far more pleasing pulling all the colours harmoniously together. What a task you set yourself, but it was worth it.

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    1. Dear Rosemary,

      What I didn't say in the text above is that the red area — what I call the wainscoting — has received so many coats of paint that there is now a decided "ledge" where the top has been taped and painted so many times. One can run a finger along the edge of red and feel it! So my room has become about 1/16 " smaller!

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  3. Hello Mark, I had noticed before that the red band was rather bright, almost orange-appearing, but assumed partly that it was the lighting and photography. I love the cochineal--it is much richer and grander, and as the Hattatts point out, serves to ground the entire room. Some paint colors that were originally bright now have some extra considerations--we are used to seeing them toned down over time, and of course the dimmer lighting back then required a lighter hue.

    Since you know my Ohio-centric streak, I would like to point out that Sherwin-Williams is an old Cleveland company, and I believe still headquartered there. What you told us today makes their company motto even more impressive: when we are informed that S-W Paints Cover the Earth, we now know that they are talking primer and three coats!
    --Jim

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    1. Hello, Jim,

      Primer and four coats!

      Your comment reminds me that the archeologists and restorers of Colonial Williamsburg have discovered in recent years that the colonists used a much brighter palette than was originally believed, and within the past couple of years it was discovered that even Jefferson's Monticello had a brighter interior color scheme.

      Probably the most interesting aspect of red in Pompeian murals stems from a recent discovery reported in The Guardian. It seems that many of the panels we know as red started out as yellow in color. Tests now reveal that gases from Vesuvius reacted with the yellow and turned it to red. So perhaps the craze for Pompeian Red should really have been a craze for yellow!

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  4. Hello Mark,
    I love hearing every detail of your journey. When I stop by your site, I may arrive during a hurried moment in my day, but I always leave a little more relaxed. What a great blog. Your art work is amazing. Best wishes Mark.

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    1. Hello, Mrs. D.,

      That your viewing of my journey is relaxing to you pleases me more than you can know because my intention all along has been to create a serene space that evokes another time and way of living. Thanks for brightening my day!

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  5. Mark, As I have worked with reds and know how difficult it is to change the palette, I would never have said anything before, however I am so thrilled with the Cochineal, it is really just perfect. A very rich red. Your hard work was worth it!

    xoxo
    Karena
    The Arts by Karena

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    1. Hello, Karena,

      Yes, it sounds as though we both know that using red is a commitment, and that undoing it is an even greater commitment! But everything is a learning, and I know more about the color red than I did last year!

      xoxo

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  6. Oh, so much better! An "antiqued" version, if you will. Although I am about to undertake a paint job here, it is of a much more simple production, and I am just supervising. That notwithstanding, I hope it will be a relatively stressless experience. (These things are carried out by a cast of thousands, so that's what raises the blood pressure.)

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    1. Thank you, Columnist.

      Fortunately for me, I enjoy painting walls, and though I have hired people to paint both the interior and exterior of the house, in each case I've insisted on doing detail work myself. Maybe I know intuitively that I'd rather do that than redo other people's work. Or maybe I realize that I'd be an irritating foreman.

      Good luck with your own project. A cast of thousands requires more than a foreman!

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    2. It's a cast of zero as I write....! I shall be sharpening my baton in the interim.

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  7. Dear Mark, What a lesson in color! It is interesting how your mural colors change when next to the grey. As soon as the Cochineal was added the rest of the mural brightens and comes alive.

    I would like for you to conduct an experiment. Paint a board with Ablaze. Apply a thin coat of Minwax Gel Stain in raw umber, diluted with mineral spirits. The gel stain is translucent and allows for the Ablaze color to become an important part of the final color result yet giving it a rich patina. The end result would have been Cochineal with one application.
    If you like the results a better and more professional product is utc tinting colors in Raw Umber by Degussa.

    http://annexpaint.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_14


    It is a superior product and I would not be without it.


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    1. Dear Gina,

      Thank you for your recipe for an easier, richer Ablaze. I received a more personal comment that suggested many glazes of pink and a final coat that entailed stippling, but your approach seems much more practical. I will try your experiment if I ever attempt another Pompeian red, though my intent was for flatter colors (which admittedly would not be lustrous).

      Thanks for the link, Gina.

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  8. I was glad to read Gina's suggestion. My first thought was Ablaze needed a swift kick of glaze. I love the way oil glazes let the undercolor glow while deepening the perception of the top coat. But all is well that ends well and it is most fitting that the new color is Cochineal. (Have you read the A Perfect Red? Cochineal, indeed.)

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    1. Hello, HBD,

      When I started the mural, I had several directions in which I could have gone, including the freshly new Pompeii, and the Pompeii that was uncovered and distressed. The mural's medium, believe it or not, is interior house paints, though I have been mixing in artist's acrylics with polymer glazes in spots. Perhaps it is my background as a graphic designer that steered me to flat panels of color and away from undercoats and glazes on a major scale.

      I haven't read A Perfect Red, but I have read Victoria Finlay's best seller, A Natural History of the Palette. What a fascinating book! And it goes into depth about the history of the unfortunate Cochineal bug.

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  9. Dear Mark,
    Having just plunged back into the world of blogging I have so much to catch up on but first I had to come and see how your work is going. Its fabulous!
    Painting walls (or ceilings for that matter) is not a favourite occupation of mine but I have an idea that seeing each layer of cochineal slowly transform the red to the right Pompeiian shade would have been worth it.
    Bye for now,
    Kirk

    PS
    I now rather fancy obtaining a copy of 'A Natural History of the Palette' for myself!

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  10. Dear Kirk,

    It's so good to have you back on the blogosphere — back in circulation as it were.

    You would find "A Natural History of the Palette" fascinating indeed. Its title is actually "Color: A Natural History of the Palette," and it was a best seller some years back, As I recall, it describes the history of various colors and the great lengthes to which people went to achieve them. As it turns out, the color Cochineal Red, which is the color of my Pompeii Room, was origianlly achieved in South America by collecting the tiny Cochineal bug and crushing it!

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  11. A gray primer plus four coats to cover over that brilliant red - seriously?? WOW! Cochineal really is a better shade there - it's richer, quieter and earthier.

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    1. Hi, Loi,

      As I keep saying, it's only paint. You're right, it's a quieter color, and that certainly helps a room that already puts a lot of demands on one's attention.

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  12. Yes, you were absolutely right. The darker earthier red is IT. But all that work. I continue to marvel at your devotion, Mark. And I wish I had your energy. :)

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    1. Dear Yvette,

      My devotion to this mural is not just to do a job right, but with the realization that I will be living with the mural for a couple of decades at least (I hope!), and that if I saw daily things that could have been much better, I'd go NUTS!! :o)

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