Art that doesn't cost the Earth

 As mentioned in one of my previous posts, I have been experimenting with various products in order to make my art environmentally-friendly. 

I am now using Natural Coloured Earth Pigments from Celtic Sustainables and mixing them with walnut oil to create my own eco oil paints. 

I learnt that it is necessary to use glass and a muller to properly mix the paints. Here you can see that I have poured out some of the brown pigment on to a sheet of glass and I am adding some of the walnut oil.

At first, it is necessary to use a palette knife to mix the powder and oil together.

I then use a glass muller to properly grind the pigment into the oil.

    

Once I am happy with the consistency of the paint, I scoop it into a jam jar for storage.

Instead of using the usual cotton canvases, I have decided to opt instead for linen which is more sustainable. 

So far, I have painted a few mini eco canvases on linen and have found it a lovely material to work with. To prepare the canvas for painting, it is necessary to cover it in a layer of clear gesso so that that the paint does not damage the linen fibres. Luckily, naturalearthpaint.com make an eco-friendly gesso, which I have found very effective. 

I used Eco Solve to thin my paint and clean my brushes between colours. However, I have recently discovered that it is possible to simply use more of the walnut oil to thin the paint and just use a different brush for each colour, removing the need to rinse brushes between colours. To wash my brushes after finishing a painting session, I use The Masters Artist Soap, which is also environmentally-friendly.

I have used driftwood to frame my eco paintings and I attach the pieces using environmentally-friendly glue. I prefer to leave the picture without any glass in front of it.

Next, I am going to experiment with painting directly on to wood.