Painting ‘Fearless’: The Magic of Pyrrole Orange

Last year, my daughter and I visited Oxford for the Oxford Brookes University open day. We had a wonderful time looking around, and since we found ourselves with some unexpected hours to spare afterward, we took the bus into the city centre.

Photo by Ben Seymour on Unsplash

Oxford is a beautiful city. I am a little spoilt because Cambridge is only 30 minutes from where we live, and it’s usually my go-to place for everything and anything. But what a beautiful place Oxford turned out to be too. We grabbed some delicious pizza (if you want the best calzone in Oxford, look no further than Italiamo!)

Not surprisingly we found our way into the famous Blackwell’s. If you’ve never been, it is an absolute paradise for book-lovers. The sheer number of floors highlighted just how out of shape I am, and of course the art section was on the top floor. Still, my audible wheezing didn't put me off buying a copy of 'Art Is Magic' by Jeremy Deller. 

A Little Souvenir?

You know that feeling when you've had a lovely day and you just want to buy a little something as a keepsake? A tiny treat to add to your creative stash to remember the day by? That’s how I ended up buying a tube of Pyrrole Orange from a cute little art shop called Broad Canvas. I'm not actually sure how you pronounce Pyrrole, as I've only ever seen it written down. I'll have to try and shoehorn it into a conversation and wait to be corrected. I did look it up, and one website said it's like "squirrel" but with an '-ole' at the end. Mmmm, a lovely bit of squirrole. 

As is common with many impulse buys, this tube sat untouched for months. When I first went to use it in the studio, it felt way too bright, borderline neon. On top of that, it was incredibly transparent, and I had no idea how I was going to use it.

Now, on reflection, this shouldn't have been a surprise. Golden are really good at demonstrating the colour values and transparency right there on the actual tube. I just think all that delicious pizza must have gone to my eyes. 

Something In The Orange

I should reiterate that I am a firm believer that you don’t need every single colour under the sun in your art kit. You just need the basics. In fact, some of my most successful paintings have come from forcing myself to use the Zorn Palette, a beautifully limited selection consisting of just four colours: Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black, and Vermilion (or Cadmium Red). The magic you can create with just those four is incredible. I like the palette so much you can buy the t-shirt.

That said...I do use a lot of orange in my paintings and lately, I’d been feeling like my trusty Cadmium Orange wasn't offering much variation. I was craving something with a bit more punch. So, when this Pyrrole Orange originally came into my view at the shop, I just went for it.

Newsletter Subscribers To The Rescue

A few weeks ago, I put out a cry for help to my wonderful newsletter subscribers. I asked them to send me some of their favourite pictures of cloudscapes or sunsets they had taken. I hoped for a few, but expected none.

I was absolutely blown away. I've had over 180 photos sent to me! I was so deeply pleased with them. Not only were the images fantastic quality, but I feel like I have found my people. They really are the ones who stop, look up, appreciate, and capture skies like I do.

Because of their generosity, I now have the most wonderful photo reference resource that I can look at whenever I choose what to paint. It genuinely gave me such a boost—I feel like I have my own personal skyscape library to work from! Thank you so much to everyone who sent a photo in. This is only half of what I've been sent! I'm so so so happy with them. 

* By the way, this is an ongoing thing. If you are reading this, whenever and wherever you are, just use my website contact form to send me pictures of the skies that stop you in your tracks. They must be your own photos though, not just found on the internet or created with AI. (Thank you)

One particular photo sent in by a customer instantly got my attention. The sky was a blazing, fiery, dramatic orangey-red. Could this be what my untouched tube of Pyrrole Orange had been waiting for?

Going All In

I'm a 'have a go' kind of painter. I learn by doing. So, I grabbed the tube and painted the entire background of the canvas in pure, unadulterated Pyrrole Orange, hoping that elements of that wild neon fire would sneak through the subsequent layers.

My painting process is very much a dance of adding and subtracting, and building layers. I'll often paint a big fluffy cloud, and then paint a patch of blue sky right back into the middle of it to break up the shape. To me, that push-and-pull is what keeps a painting feeling alive, breathing, and moving. It's also what keeps me interested. 

I rely heavily on value and colour temperature to make elements either recede into the distance or pop forward. But because Pyrrole Orange is so transparent, when I tried to use it to bring back those bright, fiery highlights it completely lost its punch. It just disappeared. I tried adding a bit of white to give the orange more body, but that just turned it a bit chalky and pastel. Totally ruining that first layer's fiery glow.

Then, I had a little breakthrough.

Instead of mixing the paint, I painted a patch of pure, solid Titanium White onto the cloud area first. I let it dry completely, and then glazed the pure Pyrrole Orange right over the top.

The orange instantly reclaimed its original, eye-popping punch. Phew. The titanium white underneath acted like a mirror to bounce the light right back. Not a bad match at all.

It does sound incredibly obvious when you say it out loud, but it took me a good few frustrating moments to figure this out in the studio. Anyway, I wanted to share that little trick with you today to save you the time and headache next time you're working with transparent pigments.

Introducing: 'Fearless'

I am really pleased with how this little piece turned out. I’ve named her 'Fearless'.

She is a tiny but mighty 6" x 6" framed acrylic on canvas. She is part of my upcoming collection, Borrowed Hope, which is launching soon. Newsletter subscribers will be first to hear about it, so sign up to Notes From The Studio today. 

Facts For The Colour Nerds - Pyrrole Orange

• Why is it called 'Pyrrole'? The name comes from the chemical structure of the pigment, which features a "pyrrole ring" (a specific arrangement of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms). It was actually discovered entirely by accident in the 1970s by chemists experimenting with chemical synthesis!
• The Ferrari Connection: If Pyrrole Orange looks like a high-performance sports car to you, that's because it is. Because pyrrole pigments are incredibly lightfast (meaning they won't fade in the sun) and highly durable, they were quickly adopted by the automotive industry. It's the exact same chemical pigment class used to paint luxury sports cars and Ferraris! Jackson's Art have a great article about it. 
• Is it Warm or Cool? It sits beautifully as a warm, clean orange leaning slightly toward red. Unlike older organic oranges, it doesn't have a muddy or earth-toned undertone—it remains intensely vibrant even when thinned down.
• The Transparency Secret: On the Pigment Index, it is classified as PO73. It is naturally a highly transparent to semi-transparent pigment. This means it functions beautifully as a glaze over lighter colours, but will disappear if you try to paint it over dark values without an opaque base layer like Titanium White underneath.
• The Nearest Pantone Match: If you want to spot this colour in the design world, it maps almost perfectly to Pantone 172 C. It's an intense, high-chroma shade that designers use when they want a colour to scream for attention.