‘Making Colour’ workshop

After getting off to a great start to the year with a range of trips, from team building in the Escape Rooms to exploring the Louvre and Versailles in Paris, we came back after the half-term break ready for some more adventures! The first trip was taken by the Art and History of Art Students to the National Gallery for the ‘Making Colour’ workshop. Here they learnt about the different ways that col-ours have been created throughout history, using ingredients such as crushed Lapis Lazuli to make rich blues and the in-sides of beetles to make bright reds.

The workshop was based on an exhibition that the gallery held a few years ago. At the workshop the students not only learnt how to create their own paints from scratch but also how the various techniques and substances used to create paint have changed through the years. In the Victorian Era, there was even a paint called ‘Mummy Brown’ that was actually made from ground up Ancient Egyptian Mummies

We hope that this workshop will have inspired our students to look at paint in a new light and gives them the inspira-tion to create their own uniquely colourful images.