How to Paint Lilacs: Modern vs. Historical Pigments

Last week, after deciding to paint some true beauties of the season (lilacs from my back yard), I faced a dilemma – which pigment should I use: modern or historical? As you know, I love using the natural pigments but sometimes there is no easy choice. In the historical/natural pigment world there are no rich brilliant purples available – with the exception of one that is not usually in an ordinary artist’s paint box.

That pigment is Tyrian Purple made from the Purpra Lapillus, a shellfish which excretes a beautiful purple dye. Centuries ago, this dye was used to adorn the robes of kings and other royalties and to dye cotton, silk, and wool. I discovered and wrote about this pigment during my Lessons from the Low Country Pigment Project.  Sadly, it takes approximately 10,000 sea snails boiled in huge vats for days to make one gram of this color. Today it is available for a mere $4,280 per one gram at artist material suppliers, although probably not your local Michaels Craft Supply.

Fortunately, there are some lovely modern pigments to replicate the authentic Tyrian Purple. To paint my lilacs, I chose Graham’s Quinacridone Rose, Rembrandt’s Rembrandt Blue (a very old tube in my paint drawer), and Daniel Smith’s Quinacridone Magenta with bits of other reds and pinks that were on my palette also. You can see the splendid variety of light to dark violet/purples here in the color swatches made from 3 colors plus white. Quinacridone Magenta and Rembrandt Blue make a stunning rich nearly black dark. You could substitute the Rembrandt Blue with Ultramarine Deep.

Sensation 5×7 Modello Oil Painting on Gold Leaf

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Sensational 6×8 Modello Oil Painting on Panel

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Fragrant Wonder Oil Painting on Linen

For the deeper colors in Fragrant Wonder (below), I used the same tube colors but in different proportions of blue to magenta and rose. with varying amounts of white. You can see the amazing range of hues achieved here in these paintings with just 3 colors. The trick with the rich dark purples is to be wary of getting too garish with the color so be sure and knock it down some with something. I used Williamsburg Italian terra verde. For now, I will continue to use modern paints for purples/violets in my paintings, at least until I want to fork out a cruise on the Rhine for a gram of color made from the illusive sea snail.