One of the powerhouses of antiquity, this pigment is synonymous with the development of art itself. Natural red earth can vary in color quite a bit but it is often a medium-chroma red made from the earth. Within the wide-reaching domain of natural red earths, there are two main varieties: natural and synthetic and they have different pigment codes. PR101 refers to synthetic red earths while PR102 is the pigment code for natural ones. Unfortunately, genuine earths are getting harder to find in oils, and some companies have discontinued colors due to mergers in the wider pigment industry.

Among the natural red earths there is a huge variety of colors and textures. They may have a bit more nuance over the synthetic ones, and many that we've tried have a large particle size (read here, grit). The synthetic ones, sometimes labeled Mars Red, can have an extremely fine particle size but this also depends on the manufacture.

The technical name for red earths is Natural Red Iron Oxide or Red Ochre. These can come in almost any color of earthtone (brown, red, orange, yellowish or even greenish). These are pigments of outstanding permanence and lightfastness.

Natural Red Ochres are associated with paints that tend to be fairly opaque, however that is not a given. Sometimes natural red ochres have a character that is just not matched by a particular synthetic pigment due to various other naturally occurring components of the pigment. In other words, sometimes natural colors are a bit more softened than their synthetic counterparts. For many reasons the natural versions of these pigments retain their charm.

PR102 can come in quite a few colors. It is common to find anything from brown to red to orange with varying undertones.