Green Paints from Gemstones – Zoisite

A new series of posts featuring my collection of gemstones and my gemstone watercolour paints. This photo shows Zoisite gemstone with ruby inclusion, there so much minute detail, texture and tonal value gradations in just one of these stones. They’re like a work of art all in themselves.

50 Photos later….. and I was still having fun taking these shots,  Gorgeous subject!

The watercolour paint Zoisite, in the samples below, show the colour, texture and tonal qualities of the pigment.  You can also see how Zoisite works in a painting in my   Zen of Colour: Forest which uses mainly zoisite in the background.

This green paint pigment has very heavy dense particles that sink into the pits and grooves of the paper leaving fascinating textural patterns. It dries a soft grey green with a whisper of umber in paler washes.  Zoisite a granulator, mixes quite well with many other paints, which in turn creates a blend that also granulates.

I’ve been asked if I crush and make my own gemstone paints. No! It would take ages. And my arms are definitely not strong enough!!   I buy them already in their tubes from Daniel Smith art suppliers.  Jackson’s art shop in Perth  can order them in.

Apatite gemstone has a great range of greens from aquamarine greens, sea greens, and raw umber brown inclusions adding interest.  In the sample below, I’ve mixed the zoisite in with a pale lapis in back, then a serpentine yellowy green, and in the front is a strong version of the green apatite with its very definite granulating pattern quite evident.

My next workshop event is  my March 28, 2015  UWA extension workshop “Painting with the Jewels of the Earth.”

So in timing with this workshop,  the next series of posts will feature gemstones and the corresponding paints.

This will include:  amethyst, sodalite, kyanite, turquoise, rhodonite, jade, garnet, lapis.