Hematite Ore and Micaceous Iron Oxide
Amy Shawley
For the tutorial segment of this week's blog, I'm opening my blog vault and linking you to a post I wrote back in 2011 about Micaceous Iron Oxide - find it HERE. I had planned to post a new tutorial using this beautiful iridescent color, but I find myself strained for time since I'm in the middle of making work for a show I'm hanging next week - more info on the new art is coming soon!
It is common to hear from many of my students and lecture attendees that Micaceous Iron Oxide (refered to in places below as "MIO") is a favorite color in their paint boxes and it is one of my absolute favorites too, not just for how it can be used in art but also for how it appears before it gets turned into paint, as a raw piece of Hematite Ore!
As it relates to the texture theme this month, it can be textured with brushes, tools, stencils, etc but it has its own subtle texture - a fine sandpaper-like grit that works beautifully as a ground layer for both wet and dry media. If you would like to see it in action, Golden has a fantastic video about "MIO" here. I just love it for making a sparkly grisaille and adding it in selective areas of a painting as a dark value...
From the 2011 blog post - using the Fluid Acrylic version to liven up a graphite drawing!
Image detail - see how it glitters and notice that lovely tooth that allows other media to grip to it!
Here the Heavybody version was used as a ground for soft pastels, apply it with a palette knife to get nice opaque coverage then let it dry completely before using it as a ground for dry media!
Above "MIO" was concentrated mainly in the texture valleys of a stamped paste and in the corners of the image to give the appearance of shadow, this makes the lighter value in the middle feel more luminous.
This abstract landscape made from High Flow Acrylic stains was created over top a grisaille layer made with Heavybody "MIO". Watermedia effects cling well to this metallic texture!
Hematite was used historically as a pigment in cave paintings, ancient Greece, the Renaissance and beyond, though it was mainly used for its red component! With each Natural History museum I visit, I'm always on the lookout for what their Hematite Ore samples look like. With its "kidney" shape, it has much visual interest and can look like a sculpture...
Hematite at the Glenbow Museum, Calgary
It is also strikingly beautiful as the red layers flake back to reveal glittery gray ones, this is the component of the rock used to make Micaceous Iron Oxide...
Hematite at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh
Just recently, after many a failed search, I found a small sample of raw hematite in a rock shop! It is about 3" wide and reveals both the red and gray layers that are used to make pigments! I had to bring it back to my studio and I look forward to using it as an educational tool and a source of inspiration!
I invite you to share with me how you have used Micaceous Iron Oxide in your work, and if you have any questions, drop me an email!