THE BROTHERS/ paints made from raw natural earth and pulverized charcoal, bound with milk glue on panel

         

    The Brothers

    1973

    by Eric Whollem

    earth pigments and pulverized charcoal in casein on panel

    Collection of the artist.

      Copyright by the artist.

An Early Earth Painting From the 1970's

PAINTS MADE FROM NATURAL MATERIALS

This work harkens to a degree to the arts of the

Aborigines of Australia. In fact, it was painted with

a stick brush, much as the Australians do. In the

light angle chosen to photograph this work, the heavy

impasto paint stands out clearly in well defined light

and shadow.

Van Gogh was famous for his use of heavy impasto.

His secret was combining wax additives to oil paints.

He painted with a palette knife.

The paints in my painting include red iron oxide garnered

from deposits of decomposed granite ore. The white

paint is made from coarse white granite soil.

The charcoal was gathered from lumps from a

campfire, ground in a mortar down into a fine

powder. The final paint made from charcoal is much

different from anything one can get out of a tube of

paint. The pigment sparkles in the light, with natural

highlights from the charcoal fragments.

Milk Glue Paint Binder

All these pigments were bound with milk glue,

which is to say "casein" paint binder. Milk glue

was utilized by the ancient Egyptians for the

murals painted on tombs. Thus it is known to be

a binder with high longevity.

Symbolically milk glue, insofar as it relates to the

feminine principle, nicely harmonizes with the ideal

of  "Mother Nature."

*

Abstract art, early works.

Figurative Abstraction.