When did pigments started and does it have any history?

http://www.danielsmith.com/Articles/Guide-to-Pigments.asp

http://www.missing-lynx.com/rare_world/rw05.htm

http://history-world.org/stone_age1.htm

(The link above is for the history of the Paleolithic time)

We always hear the word pigment and we really never hear when this around was. Pigments were around since the Paleolithic time which was the era was our first ancestors were alive. This is when they say that there was the first wheel and the first stone tools. They were trying to mix things up and they found this way of mixing pulverized minerals and charcoal. They would paint on their caves and this paint have been there for over than 30,000 years. Back then, the pigments that they had were not that well when it came to the texture of it and also the color that you would get. As the years have been going, there have been better pigments with their colors and also now they sell then when back then they didn’t, most people would make them. Also there are some pigments that are from natural earth and they are umbers and siennas. Others like cadmium colors are not natural because they have somewhat different mixtures and they are manufacture differently. So now you know that pigments have been here for along time and yet they are still use now days.

What is a pigment?

http://www.missing-lynx.com/rare_world/rw05.htm

http://www.concretedecor.net/Abstracts/CD403_Pigments.cfm

Pigments are essentially coloured powder, and they are use to be mix with binders and water to make paint. Some of the types that can be coloured are acrylics, chalks, coloured pencils, oils, and others. These are the things that you would mix with the powder. When you mix all of this, you would get paint. Some paints are faster to dry than others. For example, Naples Yellow is one of the colors that are made out of pigments that dry fast. It all depends on what type of paint do you want to do, but the pigment substance would always stay the same. You need to make sure that you do every single step that they tell you or else your mixture would come out bad. Also when you have a pigment, you ALWAYS need to have it finely produce because if it isn’t, then it would ruin the whole thing.

Mark Rothko and World War ll

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/index.htm

http://www.geocities.com/geldof_99/w_w2.html

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/rothko/rothko_ss.shtm

Mark Rothko was alive from the years of 1903 – 1970. Between those years, there were a lot of things that were going on for example World War ll. This was a big impact in the history of the United States. This war was from the years of 1939 through 1945. This was one of the longest wars and there were a lot of countries involve in this. There were a lot of soldiers in the military and they were encouraging to get more. For example, in the United States, they would have posters that would say that if you go to war, you would come back as a hero and be respected. This is still what they would tell the soldiers that go to Irak but now days; there is a bigger problem with this war because there was not point for the military to go in Irak. This is another war that is happening right now. Mark Rothko was one of many artists that were painting of what was going on with the war. The paintings were sad and the colors were not bright as they would be. This is how many people knew what was going on with the people dying, people getting hurt, people getting traumatize, and many other things that happened in the war. Also Mark was known for his piece of art that he did to reflect on the war. This could also have been one of the reasons that he felt in his big depression that he was on.

The Background of Mark Rothko's reason for suicide

http://www.atypon-link.com/GPI/doi/abs/10.1521/jaap.30.1.17.21984?

cookieSet=1&journalCode=jaap

In this website, it talks about how Mark Rothko had a very hard childhood and this is what caused his suicide. He experience early losses from his family. They don’t say who he lost but it was someone that was very meaningful to him because from that day and one, he was depressed and not that mentally well. I am not saying that he was crazy but that he was not well because he was alone and it was hard growing up without that person. When a kid is growing up and there isn’t that much love in his family, then he grows up to not be that loving or happy person. This is not for all people but it was in this case. He didn’t get marry or he didn’t have any relationships when he killed himself because he would also have attitude issues and he would just start to scream. He would scream because he didn’t want to hear what people were saying and this cause the women not to date him or get near him. He was always depressed and no wonders why his art was usually dark and not that complex because maybe this is how he felt with his life. This is the background of why he suicide himself.

Did you knew that Mark Rothko committed suicide?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/powerofart/rothko.shtml

This is a website that I thought gave good information on the artist Mark Rothko. This website said that he was born in Russia and also information on his life. From Russia, he moved with his family to Portland, Oregon and from there he moved to New York to study art with the artist name Max Weber. After he studied there, he was ready to start painting and he was one of the best student that Max had. Later when he was out of that school, he started to have his career go up. At first he was known as an abstract expressionism and throughout the years of his career, he moved his mood in his paintings. He has an interesting art because there really isn’t that much of shapes and not that much work. I couldn’t believe that this person would get money for just having lines with color. I know that for some people, this is art but for me, his art is not that well as other artist. He was making good money and he was rising up as an artist and in the year of 1970, he committed suicide. He had a good life for it to come and yet he ruined it by killing himself.

About Mark Rothko

http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/intro1.shtm

This website has information on an artist name Mark Rothko. He lived from the years of 1903 through 1970. I really didn’t know anything about him but sometimes when you just look at their painting, you can get a lot of information from it. Here on the left is a picture of his art and you can notice that his art piece is with lines and colors. Most or all of his art pieces are lines or shapes with colors. I wonder why he decided to have only lines with different type of color. Maybe he was a person like me that doesn’t know how to draw that well and only draws lines. When I saw his paintings, I thought that this really helped out to me because I thought to myself, I can’t draw and seeing this person’s art made me feel better. So if you are one of those people that think that they can’t draw, maybe it would be a good idea for you to look at some of the artist pieces (not just Mark Rothko) and see how their art is made. Also if you were wondering what type of mood is Mark’s art, it is Abstract Expressionism and most the pictures might be similar to the other ones but he just uses different type of color. Also I think that some people think that art is something drawn to perfection but in reality art can be anything that combines colors and shapes or actual things.

Did you know that pigments are toxic?

http://www.eggtempera.com/pigments.html

This was a website that I found and it can be every helpful for whoever is looking up if egg tempera is toxic of not. I thought that this was going to be non-toxic because I mean the ingredients that this mixture has are eggs, oil,water, and pigments. The pigments are the one that are dangerous and its very dangerous if you would inhale or consume it. The pigments that are very dangerous are Naples Yellow and Lead White/Flake White. These two are the ones that are the most dangerous ones of all the colors that have been painted. This is why when they make watercolor for children, they know that they should not use the same materials as a pigment does. This is because children don't know what a pigment is or anything like that and the first thing is that they would either eat it or smell it. Like this, there would be more children death and also I remember that when my relatives were small, they would first take the marker and taste it before they would use it to write on it. So before you give your children some crayons or markers to draw make sure what their ingredients are.

The Early Pigments and its history

http://webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/index.html

This is a website that talks about how pigments have been around through the years. They also mention that before the normal and basic pigments were made out of dirt or clay and now days they are made with chemicals. They are made out of different chemicals but yet there are some articles that say that pigments are not toxic. Now days, you can make better and more colorful pigments than back then. The first drawings that were made were the ones in a cave that our ancestors would draw. These drawings were painted with pigments made out of dirt, charcoal mixed or animal fatness. This was the only pigment that would stay there because the fatness of the animal would stick there when it would dry up. Also this web talks about how people in the ancient would put over someone’s body red pigment because this would mean that their life was over.

Art now and art back then

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_4_159/ai_73410717

This is a website that talks about how the art in the time of the Industrial Revolution. In this web, it talks about how from those days and now, art has been very different. In those days, they would just use different technology than the one that we have now days. Also back then the art was made in just paper and now days, art can be on special art paper, just paper, or in a computer. Back then they didn't have computers and some people wanted to make art but they would do this with all the materials that they had. This web talks something about this but I told you guys about the web and also what I know as my previous knowledge. Now in schools, you would do art to understand how it has change from something as carving in a stone or a rock to a digital picture or to a picture taken by a photographer. Art then and art now are very different to each other. Who knows how the art would be later on as the years go on.

About My Blog

In my opinion I think that a blog is to post interesting facts about topics that are being assign to us. We are now in a project and we are learning about art. Art is something that you can express yourself with but without words. In art you can use figures and different colors that can change the tone of the painting. For example if one painting is black with gray this piece of art would be sad because the author is not using happy or bright colors. In the other hand, if you use colors that are bright, then the painting would come out more colorful and happier.