My name is Don Byrne and I am an amateur artist who uses a unique medium to paint with. Whilst working as BHP’s Industrial Chaplain in Newman, I discovered a method of manufacturing paints using finely ground iron ore particles and Iron Ore Art was born.
Iron Ore Art is literally the Pilbara on Canvas. It is an art that was born among the Spinifex, the red earth and the iron hills of Newman. It is an art that uses crushed Iron Ore as its medium. This concept is not new. Aborigines ground yellow ochre, mixed it with water or saliva in their mouths and blew it on to rock surfaces. However, I use crushed ore and mix it with a binding agent to create this unique paint.
The land provides 4 basic colours which derive from the following ore:
Haematite (blue-Grey) mined from Newman’s Whaleback Mine, Goethite (Brown) from Yandicoogina Mine, Limonite (Yellow) from Newman’s Marra Mamba Mine & Red Ochre which can be found throughout the Pilbara. In addition, I have created a Pilbara green from mixing Haematite and Limonite. In a sense this paint is the oldest in the world. Geologists believe that the Iron Ore we mine today was laid down over 2.5 million years ago!