Red paint

Red paint

Red paint has been used throughout history. Its strong visual impact means it has endless uses from artworks to automotive finishes, to toys, tools, and homewares. It gets its vibrant colour from pure red pigments, which come from nature or modern synthetic pigments.

Those made from nature have not always been safe. A traditional pigment was vermilion. Made from a toxic mineral called cinnabar, it was in popular use in ancient China and Rome. During the Ancient Roman period, cinnabar was mined in Almadén, Spain, and created the orange-red that was so characteristic of Roman frescoes.

It was declared too expensive and unsafe to mine during the 20th century and a new synthetic pigment, Cadmium Red, generally replaced it.