Feb. 5, 2022
The Wine and Tequilla Tasting Bar in Los Barriles hosted a Cochineal painting class. The deal was you pay for the class and you get two free glasses of wine. The class let us copy a picture of a Cardinal bird and paint our own version using this rather exotic dye. So what is Cochineal?
Turns out Cochineal is a red dye consisting of the dried, pulverized bodies of certain female scale insects, Dactylopius coccus, of the Coccidae family, cactus-eating insects native to tropical and subtropical America. Cochineal is used to produce scarlet, crimson, orange, and other tints. The dye was introduced into Europe from Mexico, where it had been used long before the coming of the Spaniards.
Can you guess who painted which painting?
