Curious Yellow

"Blue & Yellow"

6 x 8, (c) Lesley Powell 2013

I have written previously about the history of various pigments, including reds and blues. For the curious, it's  now time to turn to Yellows. Yellow reflects more light than any other color, which means that it is at its purest and most intense at a very high value.  No wonder it is so bright and feels so cheery. 

As I wrote with  respect to blues, I typically use one light yellow and one dark yellow on my palette. My light yellow of choice is Cadmium Yellow Light. As you can guess from the name, this pigment contains the mineral cadmium. About half the cadmium produced today is used in batteries. A small percentage goes into pigments such as these paints. Cadmium is toxic. Some years ago, Senator Daniel Moynihan introduced a bill to make cadmium pigments illegal, but it didn't pass (sigh of relief from many artists).

Cadmium pigments were first made in the 1820's, and became more widely available for artists' use in the mid 1840's. They were part of the revolution that changed the palette and helped give birth to Impressionism. In fact, Monet used Cadmium Yellow extensively. There is a wide range of cadmium yellows, but I prefer the light.

Indian Yellow "purree"



I don't use Indian Yellow, but while we are on yellows, the story is too good not to tell. It is widely believed that Indian Yellow was originally made in rural India, from cow's urine. The cows were force fed almost exclusively on mango leaves, then their urine was collected and dried, yielding hard yellow balls of the raw pigment, called "purree". (Photo above). The resulting color was a warm, transparent glazing yellow. The old practice was eventually outlawed because of the cruelty to the animals. Winsor & Newton introduced an effective, artificially manufactured Indian Yellow in 1996. Aren't we glad we live in the modern age??

My "dark yellow" of choice is Raw Umber...stay tuned for a future post, because the umbers are worthy of a column all their own.