pigments stories
Working with the clays and stones of the Pacific Northwest has taught me important lessons about the goodness inherient in the limits of the natural world and how to listen to the landscape through my creative practice.
For most of my life I have painted. I developed my artistic voice with the qualities unique to petroleum based paints. Often painting nature with plastic!
I wanted to create with the mineral personalities of my landscape in natural binders, so I began practicing new mediums.. watercolor, hide glue, tempera, and more, and gave away my paint tubes to an art resupply. I kept meeting colorful embankments of reds, greens, oranges and purples on my excursions that invited me into conversation with them. Sitting with these places, I am learning to interpret the language of iron and time, and hear their stories. It is a slow and soulful conversation.
I enjoy collecting pigments and preparing them for artists. It’s a pleasure to be offering an ethical & local alternative to a market saturated in globally mined pigments and lifeless industrial art supplies. But there are complex factors and values that intersect with foraging of any kind. Foraging without consideration for impact, relationship, and reciprocity can perpetuate the problematic ways that corporations and land managment agencies view the land.
Our modern approaches to art, despite our best intentions are supplied by corporations - paper, paint, frames, brushes, you name it. What options do we have? But if we turn towards a reciprocial creative practice with our environment, how can we approach it differently, not as a consumer, but seen as sovereign, as equals or friends? And if we do show up in this way, what kind of healing, magical, soulful creations could come of this collaboration?
I am listening. I am learning. I am on this path and I hope you’ll join me!
Paint Making
To become a fine pigment, the rocks and soils must be eroded by my pestle or hand crank grinder into fine dust. I wash the sediment and let settle the heavier chunks, while collecting the finer particles and drying them out. A spoonful at a time, I put some dried pigment on my ceramic mulling tile and add an equal amount of my binder.. sometimes hide glue, sometimes oil, but most times watercolor, which is a solution of tree gum + honey + water.
Slowly I circle around and around, smoothing any chunks of pigment out until its a satisfying paste. This is scraped up and drizzled into a pan where it dries and awaits being awakened again by a wet brush.
Pigment & Binder Ideas
You can find some examples of the colorful and creative things I’ve tried with earth pigments below, though if you are looking for specific info about how-tos & recipes, you’ll want to check out my workshop offerings for upcoming paint making studios!
Traditional Natural Mediums
Watercolor, oil, hide glue, and egg tempera are fantastic natural binders, each with unique characteristics. For fine arts applications, mulling pigments into your binder on a ceramic tile is recommended!
Crayons & Pigment Sticks
Making pigment sticks or crayons are easy and fun to make with kids! Pigment sticks includes honey, soap shavings and water on a mixing tile. For crayons you’ll need a designated wax pourer, silicone molds, and some light colored wax and cacao butter.
Pigmenting Paper, Candles, & Soap
Pigment can be added to other mediums like pulp, wax, and so much more! These mediums may have a carrying capacity, so you’ll have to experiement to find out just how much pigment is needed.
Plasters & Alis Paint
Clay, sand, wheat paste, and water on the walls! Ratios for pigmented plasters and alis will depend on type of clay, type of aggregate, and texture of surface. After looking up some guiding ratios for your recipe and do a few experiments to avoid cracking!
Wood Staining & Extorior Finishes
Mix your pigment into your natural oil, then with a cloth rub the saturated pigment into the grains of the wood. For a darker finish do multiple coats and let sit before rubbing off excess. Make sure to do a trial first and start with a sanded surface!
Face & Body Paint
A solid DIY body paint binder mixes 2 parts arrowroot flour to 1 part honey, then mix in your pigment and add water by the dropper to get the right painting consistency. This binder can last a week or too in the fridge before fermenting!
Timberland Watercolors
In 2022, I was inspired when sitting with a foraging place embedded in the industrially managed forests of Oregon to better understand the private and public management of lands around me. I began a research project that culminated in creating a palette of eight colors called Timberland Watercolors all gathered from this quarry, alongside a mini zine about what I found in my research.
