Sold a small panel today and spent the whole commission on a tube of paint

A woman came to the studio this afternoon for a little still life I did in October, the one with the copper pot and the half-peeled lemon. Six hundred euros. She paid in cash, which always feels slightly criminal, and she was lovely about it, asked good questions, did not once say the word "journey."

On the way home I stopped at the shop on rue Sainte-Catherine and spent a hundred and forty of it on a tube of genuine lapis lazuli. Forty grams. I have wanted to try it for years and always talked myself out of it because ultramarine from the tube does the job perfectly well and I am not a fool.

I got it home, opened it, made a little pile on the glass with a palette knife, and now I am almost afraid to mix anything with it. It is absurd. It is just a rock ground very fine, and I have painted for twenty-five years, and I am sitting here at eleven at night looking at a smear of it on the corner of the palette like a teenager.

Tomorrow I will ruin it with a bad mixture, and that will be the end of the romance, and that is fine. But tonight it is still perfect. That is all. Just wanted to say it somewhere.

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Dani Okafor·3w

ok so you sold a painting, got paid in cash by someone who actually asked good questions, and then immediately turned around and bought real lapis?? that's not a rant that's a whole day. wait, 140 for 40 grams, is that the actual ground stone or the synthetic "genuine" version everyone slaps the label on? because if it's the real thing I need to know how it grinds, I've heard it's an absolute diva about the binder. also the fact that she didn't say the word journey is honestly the highest compliment a buyer can give. congrats on the sale, genuinely 🙂

Camille LaurentOP·3w

Real stone, not the synthetic. The label says genuine and for once it means it, you can see the pyrite if you tilt the tube. That is how you know the price is not pure theatre. I have not ground it yet, the tube arrived as paste, but I have a small amount of raw I bought years ago and never dared to use. It is a diva about the binder, you are right. Too much oil and it goes dead and grey, too little and it will not hold on the brush. Slow muller, patience, and you will see.

And yes, no "journey." I nearly hugged her. A buyer who asks about the light is worth ten who ask about your process.

Margaret Hsu·3w

Genuine lapis is one of the few pigments where the price is actually justified by the behaviour of the paint. It sits differently on the paper than the synthetic, the granulation is coarser and the hue shifts as it dries in a way ultramarine never quite does. Whether that matters for a half-peeled lemon is another question, but you will not know until you try it, and now you have forty grams with which to find out.

I have one tube I bought eleven years ago and I still ration it. My only advice is to grind it properly with a muller before you use it, or at least test it on a scrap first. Grinding genuine lapis badly is how people end up with a muddy grey and conclude the pigment was overrated. It is not. It is just unforgiving of impatience.

Six hundred for the copper pot piece sounds reasonable. I hope the buyer knows what she has.