okay, so my painting app has a name now... https://ochre.art

I'm going to update this website as development progresses further and I get ready to open a private beta later this year

Ochre is designed with useful tools and quality of life features that production artists and illustrators need in their daily workflows; as an artist myself, the status quo isn't providing this right now, and I want to fix this

Ochre will be —

- focused on pure digital painting
- available on Windows, macOS and Linux
- not dependent on the internet
- forever without GenAI or similar
- reasonably priced and free from subscriptions

#ochre

Ancient Finnish graves reveal how ochre signaled identity and social networks

About 5,500 to 6,000 years ago, hunter-fisher-gatherers lived across what is now Finland. These communities, known to archaeologists as the Typical Comb Ware culture, built semi-subterranean houses, traveled along waterways, and relied on fishing, hunting, and small-scale plant use. They...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2026/01/finnish-graves-ochre-signaled-identity/

@archaeology

#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #huntergatherer #anthropology #ochre

A stupendous new #ochre #burial from Grotta del Romito (Papasidero, northern Calabria, Italy) of a girl, approximately 11–12 years of age, associated with an archaeological layer dated to 16,129 ± 100 uncal BP (19,809–19,157 cal BP, 2σ), corresponding to the evolved phase of the local Epigravettian culture.

Romito 9 presents a richly furnished burial, featuring the use of red ochre and abundant ornamentation

#archaeology #UpperPalaeolithic

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618225003635

Top stories include the #Neanderthal micoquian #ochre (not all red!) and their #fat factories.
Yes Neanderthal women would have been much involved with special repro energetic needs.

https://scicomm.plos.org/2025/12/19/top-stories-in-human-evolution-of-2025/

#Ochre is somehow incredibly frustrating as a musical artist. Many of his tracks are a bit meandering, academic, or like someone just enjoys punching a few bits and pieces together on a #modularSynth without really evaporating in a story.

And then you stumble across a track like Suspension.

What a beautiful, evocative, unique piece of #electronicMusic. Dare I say even catchy. Truly wonderful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNj7jzaXpq0

SW China funerary #ochre record of the terminal #Pleistocene.

This correctly refs article by our colleague @ochrewatts on the oldest anthropogenic ochre use up to half a million years ago in S Africa.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s40494-025-02140-9

#Bizmoune Cave, Morocco, one of the most advanced of our entire species lifespan.

'Bizmoune’s fame rests on its shell beads, first published in 2021 and dated to 142,000 to 150,000 years. New analyses now indicate the ornaments are older than earlier estimates, which raises the site’s profile as a benchmark for early symbolic behavior. The bead assemblage remains the earliest known example of personal adornment.'

#MiddleStoneAge #Africa #NorthAfrica #shells #jewellery #ochre

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2025/11/267737/essaouiras-bizmoune-cave-yields-new-clues-to-early-humans/