THE BIRTH OF COLOR
by Kathy Temean
We are all familiar with the art left behind by early man. These left-behind treasures whisper their world to us. The earth provided clay, which they molded and stone and bones, which they carved. Then they discovered the materials around them could make color. If you look around, today, you will see the same colors in the earth that they saw; yellow, buff, brown, gray, green and red. They added this color to their sculptures and realized the color helped make them look more realistic. This made the Cavemen think the life-like figures had magical powers.
They started using the colors to tell stories on their walls and just like today, one idea lead to another and they started to experiment with fruits and plants. They added water to the colors and started to apply these new colors to their walls and articles. Paint was born.
When man discovered fire, they started cooking the meat of the animals they killed. The cooked meat produced fat. This dripping fat gave the soil a different look. Some observant Caveman tried replacing the water they used in the paint with the fat from the dripping meat. The fat acted as a binder and the paint did not deteriorate as quickly. It adhered to surfaces better. As time went on, other Cavemen experimented with other binders, such as egg-whites, linseed oil, glue, wax, gum Arabic and casein. Some things worked well and helped the paint stick to surfaces and increase the amount of time it held up, others were a disappointment and were unreliable. We are still searching today for better permanent colors.
