Color: A Natural History of the Palette  

by Victoria Finlay

I returned last night from a long road trip up the coast of Atlantic Canada
to the Bonavista Peninsula of Newfoundland where i have a vacation home.
We make the trip sometimes twice a year for the past 8. 2 day drive,
15 hr ferry. It is rare that i have so much reading time.

I pick up Finlay's book the day before leaving from the MOMA bookstore.
An arm full of New Yorkers, a recent Oliver Sachs, even a Dwell that still sits
untouched at the bottom of a bag. I've read many of the 'doom and gloom'
arctic explorer adventures over the years.

This one is a gem.

"Journalist Finlay travels the world in search of ancient sources of natural colors, recounting along the way the surprising chemical processes by which everything from stones to insects to mummies have been transformed into precious pigments for paint, dyes, and varnish. In pursuit of art's first color, ochre, Finlay goes to Australia, offering, as she does in each location, an agile and entertaining then-and-now look at a place, a people, and a color and its uses and acquired meaning. Explication of red made from cochineal beetles inspires a compelling tale that stretches from Central America to Scotland, and wry humor abounds in her search for a yellow allegedly once made in India from the urine of mango-leaf-eating cows and coverage of sundry poisonous pigments. Her quest for blue brought Finlay to Afghanistan in 2000, where she was the first woman ever to tour a 7,000-year-old lapis lazuli mine, and one of the last Westerners to see the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan. Curious social mores, serendipitous science, and lots of skulduggery are all part of the rich spectrum Finlay so cheerfully illuminates."- Donna Seaman

http://www.amazon.com/Color-Natural-History-Victoria-Finlay/dp/0812971426/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1