Pigments

Coloured pigments occur in all kinds of different forms in nature and their glorious colours have fascinated us for thousands of years. Cave paintings with coloured earth such as reddle, ochre and umber are the earliest evidence of creative human work. In the Ancient World the people learned how to combine the earth pigments with lime renders and paints and therefore to use them for durable façade coatings. The result was historically coloured regions, such as Tuscany, Umbria or the Provence with their very own, typical regional and often brilliant colourfulness. Artists such as Michelangelo valued the lightfastness and intensity of the often rare and expensive earths for their valuable frescos.

Plant pigments and vegetable dyes can also look back on a long tradition. The often time-consuming and complicated extraction, for example, of alizarin red or indigo from certain parts of plants was the well-guarded secret of the dyers‘ guilds and cloth dyers. Today the convincing feature of earth and plant colours is their natural look and feel, which refreshingly differs from the often bold and short-lived colourfulness of synthetic pigments.

Our products