I’m really enjoying Aiden Hart’s book about ikon and fresco painting. He is incredibly knowledgeable, and deeply immersed in the cultural and theological background to it all. On occasions I do wonder what arcane secret I’m going to discover next. Readers are encouraged to make our own rabbit-skin glue, and I have to confess I was slightly surprised by the end of the chapter not to have been told that a trapped rabbit is better than a shot rabbit for this purpose.
I was engaged also by his chapter on traditional pigments and their derivation from natural objects, principally earth and rocks. It certainly made me think how easy we have it as artists these days. Although I grumble if I have to drive over to Ilkley to the nearest art materials supplier, or order them on-line from London, I have to acknowledge that this is a good deal easier than starting with a piece of rock, a pestle and a mortar, which is how artists would have had to work back in the Renaissance. We are told that, starting with a piece of lapis lazuli, two hours of grinding ought to produce a “reasonable amount” of blue pigment. The nearest supplier was not in Ilkley either, but in Afghanistan!