Red Earth / Red Oxide

Used by human beings for as much as 100,000 years, it is also the only pigment known to be used by another species of hominids. Neanderthal Man used Red Earth for various ritual purposes including burial rites. In time the best varieties were mined and traded by peoples world wide. After all this time the Red Earths are still very important industrially as well as for artists, who refer to it under the name Light Red. However the exacting needs of artists have lead to widespread replacement of the color by the synthetic red oxides in various shades. This process has accelerated since the 1960’s when the introduction of acrylics lead to an updating of pigment usage across all media, including oil paints. With the new media (and its more innovative approaches to pigment choices) artists became more familiar with the many advantages of Red Oxide over the natural product.