Gamblin's Reclaimed Earth Colors Set

Reclaiming mine waste into a set of fantastic colors

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I promised I'd write more about Gamblin's Reclaimed Earth Colors set. As you may recall, the pigments in this set are reclaimed from contaminated water from mining operations—an intensive and probably expensive process. Gamblin details the process on this page (which I encourage you to read in its entirety, as it's a fascinating story):

The process begins with collecting contaminated water in large tanks. To neutralize the water’s acidity, a base is added, then oxygen. This causes the dissolved iron to crystallize and settle. The result: clean water on top and non-toxic iron oxide pigment on the bottom. The clean water is returned to the river where it is safe for aquatic life and the iron oxides are dried into lightfast and safe artist pigment. The pigment is heated to various temperatures to achieve each color.

The set includes three luscious colors. Each resembles colors you are familiar with—they are, after all, earth colors. Rust Red resembles burnt sienna; Burnt Ochre, burnt umber; and Iron Violet, what I would say is a tone of burnt umber. Here's each color, presented first as its masstone, followed by a tint, using titanium-zinc white:

My favorite is Iron Violet—as a tint, it's a really beautiful violet grey. The Iron Violet feels somewhat gritty, but I like this quality, especially under a knife; the Burnt Ochre seems a little too oily, but that might be from separation while in storage.

Here are attributes of these colors:

For my experiment, I decided this palette demands a landscape painting with earth and rocks. With that in mind, I took one of my recent gouache sketches of an undercut cliff with a foreground of boulders as a reference. Although the sketch is 5x16, I cropped it and used only the right half:

The gouache kit I use has some rather high-chroma colors, and although I wanted to make a similiar painting, I felt the chroma needed lowering—a perfect use for the reclaimed earths. Also, to expand the temperature range of the earth palette, I added two other colors, Prussian blue (a cool blue) and Hansa yellow medium (a warm yellow.) I found that for shadowy areas, mixing the earth colors with Prussian blue worked well; for the sunny parts of the undercut cliff, a little of the yellow mixed into the Rust Red gave me just the right amount of warmth. I particularly delighted in Iron Violet and all the variations I got by mixing in some of the other colors. You'll see a good deal of Iron Violet in the boulders. Prussian blue plus either the Rust Red or the Burnt Ochre created a beautiful dark for cracks and deep shadow accents, which I applied with a knife. The painting:

“Undercut Cliff” 8x10 oil

Although the colors in the Reclaimed Earth Set are similar to other earth colors—except for the Iron Violet, which seems unique—I'm glad Gamblin offers them. But if I understand correctly, the set is limited and may not be available for much longer. From the web site:

Considering the sourcing and complexity of the project, Gamblin is introducing the Reclaimed Colors as a Limited Edition set. We feel passionate about our role as paint-makers and we hope to support the project until the troubled ecosystems are restored.

However, our commitment to make these colors ultimately rests in the balance between supply and demand; painters will play a powerful role in the sustainability of this project.

I do hope Gamblin can afford to continue making the set, as the colors are useful, and by purchasing them, we are doing a tiny bit in helping the environment. Karma kudos!