Environmentally conscious art

When I first started painting, I used to paint in water colours and acrylics. Once I discovered oil paints, I was hooked. You can create much more texture and work on detailed blending as the paint is slow to dry. I always found it quite unpleasant having to use solvents and found a nicer alternative called Zest-it.

However, I was shocked to discover recently how bad the fumes from the paints themselves are for your health and the environment. As a keen environmentalist, I felt so stupid not to have thought of this before. I had been changing many areas of my life to help the environment, but hadn't considered my painting.

I did some research so see what possibilities there were and I discovered a website called https://www.naturalearthpaint.eu/

This company use "pure, natural earth and mineral pigments and organic ingredients to make completely safe, sustainable, and beautiful art supplies for fine artists."

The natural pigments are then mixed with walnut oil to create oil paint. I was skeptical as to whether the paint would work in the same way and have the same effect as normal oil paint but I decided to buy a starter pack to try them out.

I am delighted to say that I am a big fan and will certainly be buying more products from them!

I will take you through the process of mixing your own oil paint.

The paints arrive in the form of powder. Here is an example of a colour I use frequently for painting wildlife:

I then gathered all our spare jam jars, ready to use them to store my paint.

You can either mix a little bit of paint at a time, by pouring out some powder and mixing in some oil, or you can convert the whole lot into paint straight away by filling a jar or tube with the powder and then adding the correct amount of oil.

Here is the yellow ochre powder in the jam jar. I then added some walnut oil which also came in the starter pack.

I mixed the oil and the powder together, adding more oil to get the correct consistency. The paint does not look as smooth as regular oil paint (maybe that's my bad mixing) but when used for painting you cannot tell.

I tried out the purple paint first. I mixed the purple paint before the other colours and left it in the jar for a few days to make sure it wouldn't dry up. I opened the jar and the paint was as fresh as ever. I painted this flower to test out the paint. I wanted to see how well it created texture and allowed for blending of colour. This is obviously not a finished painting but I am very satisfied with the paint. You cannot tell that it is not normal oil paint apart from the fact that it doesn't smell at all - victory!

It turns out that Zest-it was also not very good for the environment. Luckily, this starter pack came with an eco alternative - eco-solve. I am also very pleased with this.

I am absolutely delighted with these paints and I now intend to make all aspects of my art environmentally friendly. I would thoroughly recommend these products. However, it is much more cost effective to buy the colours you want in bulk rather than buying the starter pack.

Let me know if any of you have any tips for being an eco artist.