Soft Pastels Alain Banon Soft Pastels Alain Banon

Testing Mamut soft Pastels

After several months of work, some other months of testing, and some more spend on pastels production I finally (finally!) release officially Mamut as a Soft Pastel brand… And Graciela Bombalova “Bogra” visits the studio to test the Mamut pastels!

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Oil painting Alain Banon Oil painting Alain Banon

Visiting an Old Master, Madrid

Few days ago I had the chance to visit and meet an old color master. Maybe the last Handmade Oil Paint color artisan in Spain. Since it came to my ears that there was still an artisan manufacturer of oils in Spain, I had no doubt that I wanted to meet him!

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Alain Banon Alain Banon

A new life

In soft pastels, as in so many other aspects in life, sometimes things may not go as planned. Lots of things can go wrong… Maybe the texture, maybe the thikness is not enough, or the pigment had problems….Or maybe I forgot to add that ingredient in the formula (?)

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Alain Banon Alain Banon

The child…

I am not pretty sure how Mamut came to me or if it was me, looking for something, that found it on my way. We are alway so busy trying to get somewhere, trying to achieve something, trying to force our limits, that we get no time to realize what we are or, maybe the most important thing, what we really want.

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Alain Banon Alain Banon

Société des Ocres de France

The Ôkhra ocher EcoMuseum occupies a former ocher processing site, the Camille Mathieu factory. Abandoned in the 1950s, it has been rehabilitated to become a place of history and discovery…

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Alain Banon Alain Banon

The land of Ochres

When we talk about ocher, we cannot fail to mention France. And in particular, one of its most characteristic regions: French Provence. There is the Luberon, the heart of Provence and the last active Ocher quarry, located in Gargas, in the center of Luberon. And its iconic village, Roussillon.

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