This week I’ve begun putting down paint for the first icon of St. Barbara for my Transart project.  This icon is being created from the annabergite I collected during my trip to Cobalt, Ontario.  It’s also the same pigment I used during my attempt at painting a tree from that area.

Now that I’m standing back from the work, I wonder a little whether beginning with this place and pigment was a good idea.  It’s limited colour range and poisonous nature are both things that I find difficult; and there’s a personal weight associated with it after my last attempt, of course …

Tuesday I decided to postpone painting one more day and attempt to broaden the colour range of this sample through subjecting the pigment to higher temperatures than I did previously.  The concern here is that at these temperatures it means the sublimation of the arsenic within the annabergite.  In this case I wasn’t too concerned, as the amount was very small and I kept the kiln downwind and far away from everything, but if I ever needed to do such a thing on a larger scale I would need to set up a proper filtering system for the gases.

The results weren’t much to speak of at the initial temperatures, but my last batch (and highest temperature) produced a marked change.  The annabergite earth shifted toward a brown colour; and this is a very welcome addition to my palette!  You can see the results in the basecoat of the flesh …

Also, now that the first layers of paint are applied, I’m struck by how much wider even the unheated colours look on the panel (instead of on my pigment shelf in my studio).  Once they’re not beside the bright ochres, vermillions, azurites of that collection there own uniqueness becomes far more apparent.

Over the weekend I plan to begin working up the face, which will be the climax of the work …