Natural azurite, fine ground pigment, Master Pigments USA

High grade of azurite fine pigment. Milled in water and washed. Fine grid 0-50 microns.

Natural pigment suitable for icon painting (egg tempera), oil painting and watercolor painting without additional grinding.

 Azurite, is a natural basic copper carbonate. This mineral is a secondary copper mineral frequently found in the oxidized zones of copper bearing ore deposits around the world. Azurite is found in over 40 forms of blue colored ore. These include tubular prismatic crystals that form small roses of a deep beautiful azure blue color. Azurite is often pseudo-morphed to a green mineral, malachite, and the two are always found together.

Azurite has been used as a pigment as early as the Fourth Dynasty in Egypt. Azurite was no doubt the most important blue pigment in European painting from the fifteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. The paintings of that period of time commonly contain more azurite than natural ultramarine (lapis lazuli). Often the two were used together in paintings, with the solid colored and cheaper azurite pigment in under-painting with the transparent natural ultramarine in glazes.
The invention of the Prussian blue pigment in the eighteen century caused the disappearance of natural azurite colors from the painter's palette.

Azurite, when correctly prepared, is the most permanent pigment known. Its bad reputation of morphing its color to green, or darkening, comes from the incorrect application of size, as a binder, to hold bigger particles firmly in place. It's known that size is easily affected by moisture and turns dark, but pigment particles are unaffected. Incorrect restoration techniques in the past are the cause of discoloration too. Azurite never changes in mixtures with lead white.

Our minerals come from Jiangxi location in China. Their mines are a good source of the best grades of the almost depleted mineral. It's hard to find this blue mineral in a quality suitable for artistic use.