Abandoned ochre workings, Rustrel, Provence, France. Ochre is a pigment formed in clay by iron oxide that varies in colour from yellow to purple. It was extracted in Provence from several sites that are now closed to production. At the Rustrel Colorado site the deep red top layer is an iron oxide; below it a whitish sand and below that the ochre deposit. There are several sites in the area around Apt that, until modern times, produced large quantities for paint pigments. Ochre was once also used to colour foodstuffs, cosmetics, wallpaper, linoleum, rubber products and as a medicine. Being non-toxic it was very safe to use. Early man used ochre for their cave paintings and in Africa it has been used for 200,000 years.