Soul of the Ozarks | 2024 Handmade Watercolors

Description

Pre-orders are now being taken for the 2024 Handmade Watercolor pigments sourced from rocks foraged here at Wild Ozark in Madison county, Arkansas. Each year I’ll make several sets of watercolor pigments from Ozark sources. Once these are gone, it may be next year before I make more.

Each pan is 26mm and removable. The tins are re-usable. Send me an email to choose which colors you’d like after placing your order. I’ll email you using the addy provided if I don’t see an email from you by the next day, so make sure the address you include is correct and if a phone number, that it can receive text messages. No future spam. This is the only reason I’ll use these contact points unless you also sign up for my newsletter, and that arrives by email that you provide.

Colors Available:

• russet
• earthy red
• brown
• earthy green
• black
• shale gray
• earthy yellow

Ingredients

The ingredients in this paint:

• rock powder (wild foraged here at Wild Ozark)
• Wild Ozark spring water
• gum Arabic
• honey
• essential oil of clove (to help prevent mold)

Lightfastness

Earth pigments are generally considered to be the most durable and permanent of pigments. These are all made from sand stones found locally here in Madison county, Arkansas. The colors of our pigments are from various combinations of iron and manganese oxides. Whenever I use a source such as shale, it is always a washed pigment because washing removes any sulfur compounds that can cause odor and color changes.

Pigment Sources

 

Sandstone 

Russet, red, yellow, and black sandstones were used to make 4 of the colors. The paints are slightly textured. ‘Heavies’ indicates a washed pigment that has been ground twice – once before washing, and once after washing. Lites indicate a washed pigment.

Shale

This is a gray to dark gray from washed creek shale. It is smooth textured.

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About Ozark Pigments and Foraged Paints

A Note about Color Reproducibility & Transparency

All of my colors are made from natural foraged rocks, clay, or other resources. While I may be able to come close to reproducing the color later, it’s very unlikely I’ll get an exact match. There’s enough pigment in each of these pans to paint several paintings in the style I produce. A little bit does seem to go a long ways. But if you want to make sure you’ll have more of the exact same shade, inquire to see if there is more from this same batch. It may not be in the same form, but should at least be the same color.

Transparency

Watercolor paints made from earth pigments are not as transparent as those you might be used to. All of them are more similar to gouache than not. The ones I’ve labeled ‘gouache’ are more opaque than the pigments alone. The ones labeled ‘thin’ are more transparent.

Examples of Paintings Using This Paint

You can see the paintings I’ve made using these paints (not this identical set, but with paints made from the same sorts of rocks) at www.madisonwoods.art if you’d like to get an idea of how they look.