Pompeii was the City of Eternal colours. Pigments from the depths of the Earth. Of marbles and stones, ruins and dust, terra rossa, red and yellow ochre, malachite, verdigris and azurite. The volcanic eruption of Vesuvius brought about an alchemical transformation - Pompeii's yellows were transformed to red. It was a world living and then brought back to life through colour. By 'Materia Prima'.

Materia Prima is about elements and raw material...the raw material of the world. It is the first matter in Universal terms. This painting contains almost every earth pigment in raw form.

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"Prima materia" can be compared to everything "[...]to heaven and earth, to body and spirit, chaos, microcosm, and the confused mass; it contains in itself all colours and potentially all metals; there is nothing more wonderful in the world, for it begets itself, conceives itself, and gives birth to itself" - Paul Kugler ' The Alchemy of Discourse: Image, Sound and Psyche."

96 w x 77 h cm (Framed size 111w x 92h cm)

Oil, raw pigment and encaustic wax on board in antique hand-finished frame.