Margret E. Short Fine Arts

Portland, Oregon artist Margret Short - a modern day master of 17th Century Dutch art using the chiaroscuro technique to create still life and floral paintings.

Historical Pigments

Offerings to Isis

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Offerings to Isis 8x9  Oil on Wood panel © Margret E. Short, OPA, AWA, 2011 Lessons from the Pharaoh's Tomb, Part Two This small painting was one of the most enjoyable to paint not only for the colors but also the subject matter. One day while hunting through the aisles of our local Asian market I spied a fascinating fruit of brilliant … [Read more...] about Offerings to Isis

Cleopatra’s Garden

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Lessons from the Pharaoh's Tomb, Part Two  Cleopatra's Garden, shown above, evolved over a period of time with a "cultural blending" of ideas. My artistic license is used liberally throughout the process with many differing objects from various cultures in the composition. The "garden" is from imagination depicting favorite flowers and found … [Read more...] about Cleopatra’s Garden

More Mummy Tales

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Many followers of this blog often ask if I had ever read anything about a pigment called, mummy yellow, or mummy brown. Well, I have, and this is probably the most bizarre and creepy pigment story yet. In her book, Colors, Anne Verichon says that in ancient Egypt mummy yellow was sacred because it was made from real mummies. In the embalming … [Read more...] about More Mummy Tales

Details Please

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This detail of the same painting shows a chunk of malachite similar to those found in the Egyptian rooms at the Smithsonian. I thought it fitting to portray the mineral as the ancients would have found it before it was ground into a pigment.   … [Read more...] about Details Please