Ochre Research

Interesting or critical news featuring ochre, iron and earth pigments, and my own selection of relevant media coverage, art and articles around the world. Visit our Press and Useful Info for additional reading/sources. Seen an interesting piece on ochre, iron oxides or earth pigment lately? Let us know!

Elijah Doughty: Hundreds protest against sentence, cover Supreme Court in Red Ochre

Rio Tinto blasts 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site to expand iron ore mining (and then the CEO resigned)

Brazil prosecutor aims to charge Vale within days over mining waste dam disaster (about the Brumadinho iron ore mine disaster in Brazil, where over 270 people died and )

Iron-rich Fe-O compounds at Earth’s core pressures (yep, Earth’s heart is technically an ochre)

Primary Sources: A Natural History of the Artist’s Palette (more expansive history on natural pigments, written by Phillip Ball, author of Bright Earth)

Ocre: El primer pigmento (overview of ochre)

The Moon is Rusting and Researchers Want to Know Why

How Indigenous People Got Some Land Back in Oakland (and named the place, “Rinihmu Pulte’irekne, meaning “Above the Red Ochre” in Chochenyo).

What the Ancient Pigment Ochre Tells us about the Human Mind (some background on how ochre helps evolve human cognitive abilities)

Hunter-gatherers heated lake gunk to make ochre paint (discusses biogenic ochre paint technology)

People ‘finger painted’ the skulls of their ancestors red in the Andes a millennium ago

An odyssey in search of ochre (an exploration of oche mining and use around South Africa, largely focused on historical use)

Sacred white ochre discovered beneath Yirrkala art centre in Arnhem Land

Underwater caves once hosted America’s oldest known ochre mines (Now-submerged Mexican caves hold signs of red pigment extraction as early as 12,000 years ago: research by ochre research specialist, Brandi MacDonald)

Ochre – The Oldest Known Natural Pigment in the World

The Woman Archiving the World’s Ochres, (coverage on early variation of the Ochre Sanctuary project in T: New York Times Style Magazine)

Nanoparticles can improve stroke recovery by enhancing brain stimulation, study shows (these are iron oxide (ochre) nanoparticles, just in case you’re wondering).

Dutch Phosphorus Recovery Innovation Scoops Prize (discusses how to recover blue ochre, vivianite, from wastewater stream)

Ochre, a film by Brazilian artist Anita Ekman

Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe wears the ‘Red Paint’ and finds a home of her own (great radio interview)

Humor and Beauty Combine in New Works by Caroline Shaw and Pamela Z (review of new choral works, “Ink” and “Ochre”)

Ochres, a contemporary dance performance for Bengarra in Australia.

The Sentience of Sediments: Elpitha Tsoutsounaki’s Alchemy of Ochre

Four things you might not know about ‘Woman-Ochre’ and Willem de Kooning

Sandy Carpet (enormous “soil carpet” earthworks on Iran’s Hormuz island)

Using Soil to Make Art : Geologists in California and Wyoming use unique palettes to teach science

Coloring the Native Northwest Coast

The Colors of Earth and Beyond: Artist Interview with Ulrike Arnold

Making Saltburn Ochre with Onya McCausland (on biogenic ochre recovery from mine waste) for Turning Landscape