Violet Hematite Oil Paint

Rublev Colours Violet Hematite is a deep reddish purple hue that tints toward subtle violets when mixed with white. It is helpful for flesh tones, shadows, and its purple bias makes good grays. Rublev Colours Violet Hematite is formulated with pure, natural, ground hematite (Colour Index Name: Pigment Red 102), which is absolutely permanent and very opaque. This beautiful, earthy red-violet is cooler than other red iron oxide earths, such as Venetian red or Sartorius red.

Rublev Colours Violet Hematite is ground in linseed oil without using any stearates or other additives that affect the behavior of the pigment in oil. The pale linseed oil used to make this color is well-aged and refined, providing higher reactivity and oxidation resistance than raw oil. The consistency is smooth, thick, and rich, brushes long, yet holds its shape remarkably well. When the color is brushed out, it readily flows with the brush but remains in place when the brush is lifted.

Unique Two-Tone Appearance of Violet Hematite

Every pigment can yield two distinct hues, whether painted transparently or solidly mixed with white. The effect of using Violet Hematite, thinly painted, transparent, and in solid color, extends the range of hues accessible with it. Try rubbing a little Violet Hematite on a white surface, mixed with oil or a sufficiently thinned painting medium, so the white surface shows through. You get a purple lake hue. Now, take the same color, mix a little white paint with it, and paint it solidly across the thin paint. It is quite a different color. The shift is more dramatic in Violet Hematite than in many other colors. Harold Speed (1987) observed that “All colors are made warmer when painted over light grounds transparently, and all colors are made colder when mixed with white.”

Composition and Permanence

Notes

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

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

Color Swatch: The color swatch was created using a thin tint mixed with an equal amount of linseed oil (left), a solid, thick application (middle), and a solid tint mixed with an equal amount of titanium dioxide (right), applied on acrylic-primed canvas. All color swatches on this website are 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 due to the wide variance among color monitors.