• 100,000 year-old-human-made ochre- based mixture that could have been used like paint, found in 2011 by South African archeologists
  • 40,000 year ago cave painting drawn with red or yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide and charcoal by homo sapiens show horses, lions, rhinoceros, buffalo, mammoth or humans
  • The Egyptians appear to have used six colors: white, black, blue, red, yellow, and green. They used minium for red and generally of a dark tinge
  • Eastern Paintings : Chinese Painting dates back to 403-221 BBC, Korea Painting approximately 108 CE
  • 1718 Marshall Smith Invented a "Machine or Engine for the Grinding of Colors" in England, a device that increased the efficiency of pigment grinding dramatically
  • Industrial Revolution era :  Interior house painting increasingly became the norm as the 19th century progressed, for decorative reasons and preventing the walls rotting from damp. Linseed oil was also increasingly used as an inexpensive binder