Paint

At the back of paint mill De Kat (The Cat), the only mill of its kind, apparently, in the world (!), there is an annex that feels almost like a secret room. On request we were taken there to see the pigments that the mill prepares for artists, education and industry, from sources wide and far as well as exotic. All types of material are ground to fine pigments of the most wonderful hues. It´s an almost erotic pleasure to see and feel all the colours and to learn about how they are made, how they can be combined to work together, how the paint itself can be made. I intend to do a two-day workshop when next in the Netherlands, which De Kat offers, during which you learn how to make (and tube!) your own paint. In the meantime I will take their recipe book and the pigments I bought and experiment. (´Experiment for 6 months, and then come and do a workshop´, the Miller, who was extremely au fait with the technical materials side of Paint Making as well as the history of paints and the cultural and artistic aspects of it.)