Brown Pink

Description

Brown Pink is a handmade natural lake pigment prepared from buckthorn bark. It produces a soft, muted brown–rose with gentle tea and wood undertones and a rich masstone. In light washes it reads as a dusty, antique pink; in stronger applications it deepens into a warm, bark-like rose-brown with a subtle glow. Compared to iron-oxide earths, Brown Pink is more translucent and delicate; compared to modern synthetic pinks, it feels quieter, more historical, and distinctly botanical. This lake is made from buckthorn bark, not berries, and should not be confused with Stil de Grain or Dutch Pink lakes derived from buckthorn berries.

In use, Brown Pink gives a gentle, expressive color ideal for portraits, botanicals, textiles, old paper effects, aged plaster, and atmospheric landscape passages. It has a moderate tinting strength and a transparent body, building smoothly from pale, tea-like stains to richer layers without becoming chalky. It mixes beautifully with yellows for warm parchment and wheat tones, with reds and pinks for natural skin hues and faded rose-browns, and with blues and blue-greens for soft mauves, lavender-browns, and subdued neutrals that retain a quiet warmth. As a natural lake based on an organic dye, it is best reserved for work kept out of direct sunlight or digitized for long-term preservation.

This buckthorn-bark lake is bound to a mineral base, giving it better handling and stability than the raw dye while preserving its characteristic transparency and softly aged character. In artist’s colors it offers a uniquely historical, “old paper and fabric” brown pink that pairs beautifully with earths, botanical yellows, and other gentle natural lakes.

History

Buckthorn has a long history in European dyeing and painting, with different parts of the plant yielding different colors. While the berries became famous for producing yellow lakes such as Stil de Grain and Dutch Pink, the bark can give warmer, browner tones with a soft pinkish cast. Dyers and color-makers exploited this distinction, using bark- and berry-based preparations for subtly different cloth, ink, and paint hues.

As lake-making techniques—precipitating soluble dyes onto mineral substrates—spread through early modern Europe, buckthorn-derived lakes found their way into watercolors, inks, and decorative painting, prized for their gentle, fabric-like tones despite their limited lightfastness. Brown Pink continues this tradition specifically from buckthorn bark rather than berries, offering a more brown-rose, tea-stained hue in contrast to the clearer yellow lakes. Today it appeals to artists interested in historical palettes, plant-based color, and the slightly faded, time-softened character that organic lakes bring to a painting.

Pigment Information

Pigment Type: Natural (Organic) buckthorn-bark lake pigment on mineral substrate

Source: Buckthorn bark dye (not berries; distinct from Stil de Grain / Dutch Pink)

Suitable Mediums: Oil Watercolor, Gouache, Ink, Egg Tempera, Casein

Lightfastness: Moderate

Opacity: Transparent

Other Names: Brown Pink (Buckthorn Bark Lake), Buckthorn Bark Rose Lake

Color Index Code: NA