Pure Pigments — The Colour Makers House, Britain's only medieval pigment alchemist
Britain's only medieval pigment alchemist - where Cumbrian stone and earth are transformed into colours lost for centuries.
Pure Pigments is the practice of Mark Hilsden, Britain's only practising medieval pigment alchemist, working from The Colour Makers House — a Grade II-listed Stuart townhouse in Appleby-in-Westmorland, rebuilt in 1677. From the Stone Age through to the mid-nineteenth century, colour was made from what the land gave up: a molehill, a fell-side stone, the crushed body of an insect. We still make it that way — geology, chemistry and history, worked by hand, in the same building.
Visitors arrive expecting a shop and leave with something closer to an initiation. Children and grandparents alike have knelt over the same grinding stone, fascinated by chemistry they didn't know was chemistry. What people tell us, again and again, is that they hadn't realised how much history and geology was under their feet — until Mark showed them, hands in the material, how to see it.
Still being made here, by hand.
Ochre, bice, verditer, cochineal scarlet — each one still ground, calcined, or precipitated the old way, in small handmade batches. Explore the pigments →
From a one-hour demonstration to the full Master Alchemist experience — earth, fire, air and water, taught hands-on by Britain's only practising pigment alchemist. See the experiences →
Multi-day immersive retreats connecting geological source to finished paint, staying and working across the North Pennines. Discover the retreats →
The First Colour
Some colours had to be crossed oceans for. Some cost more than gold. But the very first colour humanity reached for asked nothing of anyone; it was lying in the ground, the colour of the earth itself.
Ochre is iron-rich earth, and humans have ground it into paint for around a hundred thousand years. It is the colour of belonging rather than status: red for kings, blue for cathedrals, but ochre for everyone.
Nearby, at Stainton West on the River Eden, near Carlisle, archaeologists uncovered one of Britain's most significant Stone Age sites, and among the finds were six hundred fragments of ochre, dated to around 6100 BC. People gathered in this river valley eight thousand years ago, and they brought colour with them.
In a Grade II-listed building rebuilt in 1677, on the same river, we still draw ochre from the earth and grind it by hand.. The oldest colour in the world is still being made here, on the same river, by hand. Eight thousand years of experience →
Blue was the colour of heaven, and for most of history almost impossible to own. The one truly glorious blue, ultramarine, ground from lapis lazuli, came from a single remote mountain and cost more than gold. Kings and cathedrals could afford it; almost no one else could. So everyone else turned to copper, coaxing deep blues from this humble metal, bice and verditer, the blues that stood in for lapis.
Green was scarcely easier. Nature offers a painter almost no good greens, so the same copper was turned toward green instead, or married to a yellow to make the colour of the living landscape by hand. This was alchemy on the cusp of becoming chemistry. English verditer was even born of silver refining, a blue-green coaxed from copper, nitric acid and chalk, a by-product turned beautiful.The colours the wealthy could never quite monopolise are still being made here, by hand. From bird droppings to beautiful blues →
The reddest red the Tudors owned didn’t come from a flower or a stone. It came from an insect — cochineal — crushed and transformed into a colour so precious it was prized above gold and fought over by empires.
It crossed an ocean to get here. From the cactus fields of Aztec Mexico, through the holds of privateering ships, into the cloaks of Elizabethan courtiers and the paintings of Old Masters, this colour travelled further than almost any other to reach the people who wanted it.
And it ended up on a contested border. Appleby-in-Westmorland has been fought over for a thousand years — Norse settlers, Norman lords, a Civil War siege. It’s a fitting home for a colour with a history of conflict and desire running through it..
During the demonstrations and workshops, whether as an artist, conservator, or historical craftsperson, you're participating in this centuries-old conversation between chemistry and craft. You're connecting South American seabird colonies to English silver refineries, connecting global trade networks to local workshops, and connecting the medieval alchemist's "aqua fortis" to the painter's palette.
The second part of the Demonstration and Workshop reveals the types of medium, or binder, that holds the colour to the surface, whether it is a living room wall, a car's metal surface, or a fine art canvas. You are invited to help the alchemist with the arcane rituals of making them, and then you get to try them out for yourself. From demonstrations, which are a quick overview lasting an hour, to fully immersive experiences that include visiting linked sites around the region.
Further details and links about these experiences are below -
Whose Hands Made Red Gold? From an orphaned earl's privateer cargoes to Lady Anne's rebuilding, Appleby's colour history is an everyday story of turning beetles into paint and makeup for Hollywood stars. Join us to make Carmine Lake from cochineal — a pigment lineage five centuries in the making.
Transform your understanding of colour in three extraordinary days. From Roman mines to your palette.
Friday evening through Sunday afternoon in Britain's only traditional pigment alchemy workshop
Intimate groups ensuring personal attention from master craftsman Mark Hilsden
Stay at Appleby Manor, once owned by Beatrix Potter's family
Painting with the Landscape
Where geology becomes art. Five days between two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, learning techniques unchanged since medieval monks ground lapis lazuli at Shap Abbey.
From foraging pigment to converting it into beautiful watercolour paints and then painting landscapes with them.
The comprehensive experience for artists who demand more than surface knowledge. Seven days to master 2,000 years of British pigment tradition, taught by the nation's only practising pigment alchemist in a Grade II-listed Stuart townhouse. You'll visit every major historical site, process materials from their geological source, and leave with knowledge that exists nowhere else in Britain
