Indigo

Blue is said to be the world’s favourite colour amongst adults.  Perhaps this is because it is a calming colour that has been proved to reduce blood pressure and we unconsciously recognise the need for calm in our busy and stressful world.

Most natural blues are derived from plants.  Woad was used by the early Britons to paint their bodies before a battle, whilst our ancestors in India, East Asia and Egypt used the Indigo plant with which to dye their clothes.  Asian Indigo slowly replaced Woad in Europe, which was replaced, in turn, by synthetic Indigo in the late 19th century, as extracting the dyes from plants proved to be a long and involved process.

One of the most famous uses of Indigo was in the dyeing of the blue denim used in the manufacture of ‘blue jeans’, (although these days the material is dyed with synthetic dye).

You can make your own Indigo paint by using natural botanical pigment.  You could make your own egg tempera paint as did Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci, or make your own watercolour by binding the pigment with gum Arabic, or oil colour by using linseed oil.

If you buy Indigo paint, because the manufacturers mix different colours together to make their Indigo paint this results in each manufacturer having a slightly different colour.  Some have more blue, some more black and some a tinge of red or green.  You just have to find the one you prefer.

Indigo in the artist’s palette is a very useful rich, dark blue.  It works well in stormy skies and seascapes, or for shadows in landscapes and cityscapes.  It is also useful for toning down other colours, as long as you remember that a little bit of Indigo goes a long way.  It also mixes well with other colours to make interesting new colours.  Try mixing Indigo with reds to make purples, with yellows (including raw sienna ) to make greens and with earth colours to make beautiful blacks and browns.

Of course, I know that each artist has their favourite colours, and some will prefer different blues, but for me there is no colour quite like Indigo –it’s the colour that I love the most.

Happy painting.