Harvard Art Museums/Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Forbes Pigment Collection. Photo courtesy of Sabine Pinon.
SABINE PINON
SABINE PINON is a writer and pigment researcher who divides her time between France and Australia. She writes, “When I was eleven, I knew the recipe for rabbit skin glue better than my mother did –which was a shame as she was preparing the entrance examination to the Louvre and French museums as an art restorer… She got in, however, and I forgot the recipe of course but not the smell of the glue in her atelier whenever she needed to make some! I loved sitting next to her when she cleaned a picture, admiring the thousands of, perfectly matched in colour, little dots she so patiently applied with her beloved triple zero sable brush. I’ve always enjoyed the company of “intelligent hands” as I call them. Hands that know the perfect pressure, which way the wood wants to be sanded, the exact amount of hairs to be pulled out of the tuft to make that #6 filbert.
14 years ago, my husband and I took over an art gallery and framing store in Australia, and soon decided to add art materials which had always attracted me although… I knew nothing! (Except that I wanted a quality I saw missing in the area.) I researched the brands, then, confronted with a daily barrage of technical questions, had to self-teach myself as quickly as possible a little of what there was to know. Despite heroes and angels along the years –David Coles from Langridge, Philip Ball and his Bright Earth, Sarah Sands from Golden and her insatiable, impeccable, questioning, George O’Hanlon from Natural Pigments, a generously sharing man of immense knowledge–, early on, the materiality of it all was still escaping me totally. However, my curiosity never stopped growing. And so I began visiting paint, brush or pastel makers whenever life brought me not tooooo far from their factories (must admit a few wild detours but so worth it.) Shortly, seeing the interest of artists who hardly knew how their “tools” were made or what they were made of for that matter, and seemed fascinated by my stories, I began a blog inbedwithmonalisa.com devoted to the dedication of these artisans and colour(wo)men behind benches and triple mill rolls.
Years have gone by, I now regularly give art demos/talks on pigments, colour, paper in my little stores… and, on the spur of the moment, put my hand up last year to give a talk at the Australian Colour Society. Hues in tubes and how they made a name for themselves was well received, and encouragements of fellow colour enthusiasts made me embark on the folly of expanding the talk into a book about Paint which I am writing now…. It’s turning into a personal sort of book. Not a History of… not a How to… Partly because the whole thing is really a little bit magical, and if you force these powerful ingredients –pigments, resins, waxes, oils, tars, etc.– into set recipes some flavour is lost along the way. Partly because Paint is messy stuff and I’m always a bit wary of artists’ studios which are too tidy. Finally because thus, I’m freer to tell “The Tales”… the way I choose.
This year, while I’m praying I’ll be admitted to Uni again, all my school friends are retiring… it sometimes seems I’m doing everything backwards in my life! I met pigments caught in the oils and resins of old Masters’ paintings before I even had a clue about them in tubes as paint… and even less as the free agents all of you on the Wild Pigment road know them as. I am excited by this new release of colour. I feel close to those of you who fossick, grind, sieve and share your astonishments, your admiration. My curiosity about pigments seems endless too and encountering recently a community of like-minded Pigment People has given me incredible joy and a true sense of belonging. Belonging to this Planet, and to a community of passionate ones, all seemingly leading good lives, sharing my concern for the old ways of treating and extracting pigment, but, also, my passion for natural colour and expressing it in one creative way or another.
No doubt I have too much imagination but, as a researcher of their interesting idiosyncrasies, pigments have become my friends over the last decade. I know most of them intimately now… their parents (well… origins!), the stuff they’re made of, their names (quite a few have many on top of nicknames) and, dare I say it in a whisper, some days I have a feeling I can decipher their moods too.
<— back to directory
Photo courtesy of Sabine Pinon.