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Journal
Everything published on materials, colour, technique, art history, exhibitions, and conservation — newest first.
November 2026
The November 2026 New York Auctions: Dates, Estimates and What the Numbers Mean
Dates, viewing times and headline estimates for the November 2026 New York sales at Sotheby's and Phillips, and why an estimate isn't the price paid.
Additive vs. Subtractive Color, Explained Simply
Additive and subtractive colour are two different physics. One adds light, the other absorbs it — and that difference explains why screens glow and paint goes muddy.
Why Some Colors Can't Be Mixed From Primaries
The colour wheel promises that primaries make everything. In practice, no mix of red, yellow, and blue gives a true magenta or bright green — and the reason is physics.
October 2026
The Chemistry of Cadmium and Cobalt Pigments
Cadmium and cobalt pigments behave and cost very differently. Learn the chemistry behind their color, opacity, stability, and how to handle them safely.
Prussian Blue: The First Synthetic Blue
Prussian blue was an accident in a Berlin laboratory that became the first modern synthetic pigment — a cheap, deep blue that changed painting and printing forever.
Vermilion and the Mercury That Made It
Vermilion was the reddest red the old world could make, and it came from mercury. Here is how a toxic mineral became the colour of Roman walls and Renaissance robes.
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More from the journal
- Why Your Paintings Look Muddy and How to Fix Color Mixing ProblemsWhy paintings look muddy and how to fix color mixing problems. The science of chromatic neutralization, pigment transparency, and value control in mixing.
- How Pointillism Exploits Optical Mixing vs Pigment MixingThe science behind pointillism's optical color mixing. Why Seurat's dots work at distance but fail up close, and what retinal mixing actually achieves versus theory.
- Why Titanium White Behaves Differently Than Lead WhiteThe chemistry behind titanium white vs lead white in oil painting. Why particle size, opacity mechanisms, and drying chemistry create fundamentally different paint behavior.
Mummy Brown: The Paint Made From Human Remains
Mummy brown was a real pigment, ground from mummified remains and sold by colourmen for centuries. It worked, it sold, and painters buried it when they learned what it was.
Why Emerald Green Was Poisonous and Beloved
Emerald green was brilliant, cheap, and made of arsenic. It covered Victorian walls and canvases for a century, and it was abandoned only when a safer green finally existed.
Indian Yellow: The Pigment With a Dark Origin
Indian Yellow was a glowing, deep yellow that nineteenth-century painters loved. Its origin, if the standard account is true, involved starving cattle — and it is still disputed.
Woad vs. Indigo: The Blue Dye Wars
Woad was Europe's blue for centuries, until indigo arrived from the tropics — stronger, cheaper, and the centre of an economic war that ended with synthetic blue.
What Is the Brightest Color in the World?
The brightest color is a yellow-green around 555 nanometres — not because of chemistry but because of the eye. Here is what brightness really is, and how to use it.
The Complete Guide to Sculpture: Scale, Material, and How Long It Actually Lasts
Scale, material, and site decide almost everything about a sculpture before a single tool touches the material. Here's the complete guide — from defining what "large-scale" even means to why some materials outlast the civilizations that made them.
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More from the journal
- Why Your Paintings Look Muddy and How to Fix Color Mixing ProblemsWhy paintings look muddy and how to fix color mixing problems. The science of chromatic neutralization, pigment transparency, and value control in mixing.
- How Pointillism Exploits Optical Mixing vs Pigment MixingThe science behind pointillism's optical color mixing. Why Seurat's dots work at distance but fail up close, and what retinal mixing actually achieves versus theory.
- Why Titanium White Behaves Differently Than Lead WhiteThe chemistry behind titanium white vs lead white in oil painting. Why particle size, opacity mechanisms, and drying chemistry create fundamentally different paint behavior.