By Suzanna Leigh
Sailing season is winding down; I don’t sail much in winter any more. Now I’m off to a new adventure: making watercolor paint from plants. Color from plants gives me a very different palette than I am used to working with. Will I even like it?
Have you ever tried to dye with beet juice? That beautiful purple red just begs to be used! I was probably 14 when I tried to dye something with it … the dress I was making for my Barbie? It didn’t work out. The color just evaporated.
I gave up for a few decades as other interests claimed my attention: painting in watercolor, school work, boys, raising a family. Then I discovered dyes from onion skins. Such a fine golden brown color, especially on silk! And turmeric – pure gold! I even made an indigo vat and tried several techniques to make indigo patterns on silk. I made dozens of hand-painted and dyed silk scarves and sold most of them; then I ran the numbers. To make the kind of money I needed to, I would have to make AND sell 70 scarves a month. Hmm. Not doing that.
I went back to watercolor painting.
Fast forward another decade and change.
I began to hear about and see paintings made with plant dyes and pigments. Hmm.
Enter Carolyn Sweeney’s class at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, near Lincoln City, Oregon. The class promised to teach how to make watercolor paint from plants! Ah! Two interests combined into one: watercolor painting and plant-based color! My friend Robyn and I decided to take the class. Robyn found a motel for us overlooking the beach, where her service dog, Andy, would be welcome.
A week before the class, Robyn and I sat down to plan. Robyn said she would bring an electric frying pan so we could cook our own meals in the motel room. We made a list of foods and utensils we would need to bring and divided it up. I made gluten-free bread.
The class was amazing! We came home with a set of pastels, 6-8 inks, an indigo crayon, and a set of 6 colors of watercolor paints in tiny pans, which we made in class. We had a field trip the first day to gather goldenrod – and were completely worn out by a 4-mile hike uphill both ways. I took copious notes by video, in my phone, and in the booklet Carolyn gave us. I now have an understanding of how to make these things – and recipes!
When we got home, I went through my supplies from dyeing silk and found that I had almost all the chemicals and utensils I needed. What I didn’t have I got at Granny’s Attic.
Then I walked down to Crow Beach to give thanks for a safe and wonderful trip. I happened to have a plastic bag with me, a habit I picked up because so often people leave beer and soda cans littering the beach or the parking lot. I don’t like seeing them, so I pick them up and put them in my trash bin.
Lo! There, lining the parking lot overlooking the beach, was a healthy stand of tansy. Now tansy is poisonous to animals and humans, so I didn’t feel bad picking all the little yellow flowers that I could. The crow watching me certainly didn’t mind!
When I got home, I learned that tansy toxins can be absorbed through the skin! Oops! I will wear gloves next time!
I spread the flowers on a tray and left them outside overnight to let the bugs escape before boiling the flowers to get the color and beginning the days-long process of making a yellow pigment. The pigment can be kept indefinitely until I need it to make paint, crayons, or pastels.
Why go to all this trouble, you may ask?
Just as sailing keeps me aware of wind and water, foraging for dye plants keeps me in tune with nature’s seasons. I love the excitement of discovery when a plant I didn’t pay much attention to before gives me a new beautiful color!
Suzanna’s paintings done with color made from plants will be shown at Anu Rana’s in November.
