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Margret E. Short Fine Arts

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.

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Hatshepsut’s Gift

August 29, 2009 by Margret Short

Hatshepsut'sGift l62@6in

Hatshepsut’s Gift

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10×8 Oil on Gold Leaf 

© Margret E. Short, OPA, AWA 2009

 

Lessons from the Pharaoh’s Tomb

 

Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon, September & October

 

Hatshepsut’s Gift   is the first painting attempted using the Egyptian pigments and was a huge challenge. As I have said many times, the natural hand- made pigments are vastly different from the modern manufactured commercial paints. Each one handles like none other.

To achieve the blue green tones of the jar I used a combination of azurite and malachite with an addition of black warmed with red for the shadow areas. My favorite combination for various shades of whites is white, yellow ochre, and black which I used on both the silver dollars and lace.

For the azurite to be saturated it must have large pigment particles, thusly it is slightly gritty and can be difficult to manipulate. Malachite is finer but far less saturated. Saturation is a word used to describe the low/high coloration quality of a certain pigment. This is extremely important to artists. We have to know how powerful a color will be and how to handle that power. In other words, malachite is a low power color and does not have a natural deep intensity in pigment form.

Now believe me, red iron oxide, which was used on the chest, is so powerful and intense it is difficult to control. Tiny bits must be added to other colors or it completely over powers. The inscription on the jar is a story about Hatshepsut one of a very few female pharaohs, and this painting is dedicated to her.

Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon

Cleo_sig

 

Tagged With: ancient Egypt, azurite, female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, malachite, paintings, Pharaoh, pigments, red iron oxide, temples, tombs

Chiaroscuro Painting

Oil painting with the chiaroscuro technique illuminates the focus area with a strong light. All other areas are painted with less detail, lower values, and intensity of color giving a mysterious appearance. By putting one or two objects in the important focus area, a strong but simple composition will emerge. Combining these oil painting techniques with a selection of superior natural pigments and oil paints result in the beautiful and evocative quality known as Chiaroscuro Painting.

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Comments

  1. Christine Debrosky says

    July 29, 2009 at 7:06 am

    Hello Margret,
    Have been enjoying your “pigment posts” immensely.
    Absolutely fascinating, as I’m a pastel painter, and work with pignment literally
    hands on.
    I’ve come across reference to ground up mummies , used in caput mortum.Morbid, indeed.
    All the best to you

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