Lazurite Lapis Lazuli Oil Paint – Genuine Ultramarine Blue for Masterpieces

Lazurite (Lapis Lazuli) Oil Paint—Genuine Ultramarine Blue

Discover the brilliance of genuine Lazurite Lapis Lazuli oil paint—the same vibrant ultramarine blue that illuminated the works of Renaissance masters. This is a deep blue color from genuine precious lapis lazuli stones used in historical painting. It is a transparent, medium-grained color with good tinting strength. It is a very long paint and makes soft, cool tints with white. Our pigment is made from genuine lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan.

The name lazurite is for the mineral found in lapis lazuli rock, usually found only at high elevations and at few locations on the earth. Lazurite is a complex sodium calcium aluminum silicate sulfate mineral in calcite formations. It is a popular but expensive mineral found combined with other minerals in a rock called "lapis lazuli." Lapis lazuli, or lapis for short, is mostly lazurite but commonly contains pyrite, calcite, and other minerals. Lazurite means "blue rock" and is a brilliant blue with violet or greenish tints. Small pyrite crystals are always present in lapis, and their gold-yellow color distinguishes lapis from a similar mineral, sodalite, and the synthetic pigment, ultramarine. The natural mineral exhibits different properties and color nuances from artificial ultramarine, which is why it is highly prized today.

Why Choose Genuine Lazurite and Lapis Lazuli Oil Paint?

For centuries, genuine lazurite extracted from lapis lazuli has been revered as the source of the most luminous and captivating blue pigment known to art—ultramarine blue. Unlike synthetic alternatives, true lazurite pigment possesses unparalleled depth, subtle chromatic variations, and an inner brilliance that transforms paintings with radiant light and color.

Natural Pigments’ Lazurite (Lapis Lazuli) Oil Paint is crafted without modern additives, ensuring the purity of the pigment and faithfully recreating the materials used by Old Masters. This paint offers exceptional transparency and a crystalline structure reflecting light within paint layers, producing a glow that is impossible to achieve with synthetic ultramarine blue. When you choose genuine lazurite, you are not simply selecting a color but embracing centuries of artistic tradition and material authenticity.

The Historical Brilliance of Ultramarine Blue

Ultramarine blue, derived from finely ground lapis lazuli, was once the most precious pigment in the world—valued even higher than gold during the Renaissance. Its brilliant, celestial hue adorned the most sacred and revered subjects in religious art, most famously in the robes of the Virgin Mary. Artists like Giotto, Fra Angelico, and Vermeer relied on the mesmerizing beauty of this pigment to create works that have endured for centuries.

The pigment’s name, “ultramarine,” meaning “beyond the sea,” reflects its exotic origins in the distant mines of Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Today, the historical brilliance of ultramarine blue lives on through genuine lazurite pigments, offering a direct connection to the masterful palettes of history’s greatest painters.

How to Use Lazurite Pigment in Oil Painting

Lazurite pigment is ideally suited for glazing techniques, where its semi-transparent nature and subtle luminosity shine. Apply it in thin, translucent layers over lighter underpaintings to achieve a glowing, jewel-like finish. The Old Masters favored this technique to create atmospheric depth and luminous highlights in drapery, skies, and delicate flesh tones. Due to its transparent nature, apply it over dark colors to develop deeper blue tones.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of genuine Lazurite Oil Paint is its naturally moderated chroma, resulting from the presence of accessory minerals such as calcite and pyrite within the lapis lazuli stone. Unlike the artificially heightened intensity of synthetic ultramarine blue, which often appears unnaturally vibrant and demands careful toning with complementary colors to temper its shrillness, lazurite’s more subdued and nuanced hue offers an immediate advantage for achieving realism in painting.

This natural desaturation allows artists to render skies, fabrics, and atmospheric backgrounds with a more lifelike subtlety, avoiding the visual harshness that can disrupt the harmony of a composition. Instead of struggling to balance overpowering color intensity, painters working with Lazurite Oil Paint find it easier to create believable spatial depth and color modulation directly from the tube. This quality mirrors the sophisticated color restraint seen in Old Master works, where beauty lies not in raw intensity, but in the quiet resonance of perfectly balanced tones.

To fully appreciate the unique properties of lazurite, avoid overpowering it with heavy oil mediums or modern driers. Instead, use it with a lean oil medium or a historical painting medium such as walnut or linseed oil. Lazurite’s moderate tinting strength makes it ideal for fine color adjustments, allowing artists to build delicate, layered effects with precision. For optimal results, use soft, high-quality brushes that enhance the flow and transparency of the paint, bringing the ethereal beauty of this legendary pigment to life.

Composition and Permanence

For a detailed explanation of the terms in the table above, please visit Composition and Permanence.

Notes

Some separation of pigment and oil may occur in Rublev Colours Artist Oils. This is a natural process when no wax or stabilizers are added to paint to prevent it.

All images of color swatches on this website are only approximations of the actual color of the oil paint. We have carefully matched the color in these pictures on calibrated color monitors to the actual color. However, your results may vary because of the wide variance in color monitors.

Color Swatch Note: The color swatch was created with a thick application (left side) of color and a tint (right side) made with equal parts of color and titanium white, applied to an acrylic primed cotton canvas.

Drawdown Note: The image of the "drawdown" contains a pre-mixed paint film of 6 mils (0.006 inch) thickness applied to a standard test card to examine color consistency, opacity, and other qualities. The drawdowns show the color's full strength (mass tone) on the left and mixed in a 1:2 ratio with titanium white on the right. The bottom area of the drawdowns is scraped to show undertones.

Note: Lazurite Oil Paint in the one-ounce jar is sealed under a nitrogen blanket in glass jars. Once you open the jar, we recommend placing a small amount of fresh oil over the paint to prevent skinning. A slower-drying oil, like poppy seed or walnut oil, is preferable. These are produced in limited edition batches, individually signed by the paint makers and producers, and sealed with a wax seal on the outer packaging sleeve.