A Kind of Blue

I’ve always been partial to blue and many of my photographic backgrounds have been painted with pure artists pigments to get this intensity of colour.

Blind Justice

According to Wikipedia, ultramarine is a deep blue pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder.

The Latin word ultramarinus means “beyond the sea” - now that is a great picture or book title if ever I heard one. It was imported into Europe from Afghanistan.

It was the finest and most expensive blue used by Renaissance painters and was often used for the robes of the Virgin Mary. It symbolised holiness and humility.

Mr Mark Feather Head

I of course used synthetic ultramarine - even so I often had intense blue hands after painting a background or object with it.

I made a whole series of still lives where all the fruit and vegetables were sprayed with ultramarine pigment using an air brush. It gave a velvety matt finish which took the light beautifully.

Painted Prickly Pear

When I was at art school I came across a book about Yves Klein, who made entire canvasses of blue - he even went on to call it International Klein Blue.

These included performance art where Klein painted models' naked bodies and had them walk, roll and sprawl upon blank canvases as well as more conventional single-colour canvases. 

Still Life with woman

The next image I want to show is The Dancing Fruit Bat from my series Cabinet of Curiosity.

The background blue is a photograph I took of a piece of lapis lazuli, the real thing.