A very purple blue with excellent lightfastness; this is one of the most standard and important pigments for the artist. The name ultramarine, comes from the Italian oltremare which means “from over the seas”. Natural Ultramarine was originally made from rare lapis lazuli stone, mined in Afganistan and treated in a complex and laborious process to rid it of its non-blue impurities. Ultramarine is now made artificially, and while it is chemically identical to the lapis derivative, costs a fraction of the price, and is much more intense. Ultramarine blue is sometimes referred to as “French Ultramarine”, a name that relates to its development in a contest during the 19th Century where it was first patented in France. The pigment has very poor flow properties in oil paint, however, in acrylic paint they are fairly good. The paint sold by some manufacturers as ‘cobalt blue hue’ is usually made from ultramarine mixed with white.