Prehistory: Paint it with nothing, please.
Was Homo Sapiens an artist? Everyone knows the cave paintings of Bombos, Chauvet and Lascaux. Hunting scenes, large predators, bison and silhouettes of apes standing with two hands. But were these images produced for artistic, informative or religious purposes? One thing is certain, they were made with great artistry.
Are you an artist? Great! We'll put you in a time machine and take you back to prehistoric times. Here it is. -25,000 years ago. Now it's your turn to show us what you can do. A small fresco on a wall? But with what material? You don't have any of your usual tools. Welcome to the savannah!
Make do with what you have at hand. If you were a cave artist, you would know how to exploit the humidity and porosity of the walls to fix the colours. Using water or grease, depending on the case, you can easily achieve a result that lasts 25,000 years!
By the way, please paint us a fresco with yellow, brown, black and red as the dominant tones. And how? By taking two shades of ochre, charcoal and hematite, in the manner of our distant ancestors. Simple, isn't it?
You can do a few touches with the airbrush to improve the result? Just use foam or a hairball as a sponge. It's dreamy and gives you ideas. That's all we were hoping for in this little dive into a prehistoric artist's studio, which Beaux-Arts was kind enough to give us the idea. Just as pigments were blown with a bone in the old days. Welcome back in 2021!
Photo: Rock fresco of hands in negative, Cueva de las Manos, Patagonia, dating from around 7000 years ago
RXM
