Enkaustikos enjoys a worldwide reputation for offering a unique palette of encaustic paint made with the finest inorganic and organic pigments. Most artists are familiar with traditional inorganic pigments like Cadmiums and Cobalts, and every painter has worked with natural earth pigments like the ochres and siennas. However, a lot of mystery surrounds some of the newer modern organic pigments that we offer. We are always searching for, and introducing, new organic pigments for encaustic artists and we want to share why we continue to expand our palette selection.

  

WHAT ARE ORGANIC PIGMENTS?

Organic pigments are simply man made pigments synthesized in a laboratory. You are probably familiar with common organic pigments like the phthalocyanine blues and greens that have been around for a while. Others like quinacridone gold, anthraquinone orange and isoindolinone (Indian) yellow are less familiar to most artists. Organic pigments are not made from metals or minerals but are carbon based pigments and they produce transparent or semi transparent paints. Since they are naturally translucent, they appear brighter to the eye because they allow light to pass through and reflect back.

We mill our paint by shearing pigments to their smallest particle size which, in the case of our organic pigments, increases their transparency. Think of a piece of colored glass, the thinner it is, the easier it is to see through. By their very nature, organic pigments do not gray down when mixed together. Instead, organic pigments maintain their vibrancy. When extended with wax medium they maintain their luminosity and never dull down. In fact, these pigments make the best choices for glazing techniques.

Organic pigments are typically the more expensive paints, but when you begin to work with them you will find that they are extremely powerful pigments, and a little goes a long way. Enkaustikos® paints contain the highest saturation of pigment that still allows for good working characteristics. You can feel confident in adding wax medium to any of our paints to extend your paint and stretch your dollar.

Not every pigment can be used safely in an encaustic studio. Some, like hansa yellow, will experience a color shift at low temperatures and even give off harmful fumes as they break down. The organic pigments that Enkaustikos® selects offer optimum stability and are ideally suited for encaustic techniques.

This fact makes them ideal for glazing.

All of our organic paints offer excellent lightfast ratings.

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