Natural Pigments and Watercolour Paints
Join our summer intern Julia Hodgson as she shares her experience with helping to plan, research, and execute this educational heritage arts program — part of our new Create @ the Homestead workshop series.
Julia delivering a presentation on the history of natural paint pigments in Canada to attendees of the Natural Pigments Watercolour Workshop at The Brown Homestead on June 29, 2024.
Today’s article has been inspired by our Natural Pigments Watercolour Workshop, hosted at the Homestead for the very first time this past June. Featuring a demonstration on how to make watercolour paints from plants and salvaged materials, as well as a step-by-step watercolour lesson by artist Rémy Bles, the workshop was well attended and sparked captivating conversations and creativity!
Rémy has been enamoured with the idea of making paint from natural pigments since taking a paint making course at Willowbank School of Restoration Arts a few years ago. Having grown up watching her mom dye wool for crafts by steaming beets and onion skins, as well as quilting and painting, pursuing various creative endeavours has always come naturally. Rémy was introduced to the idea of reusing elements from building sites to make paints by her friend, and coincidentally our Project Manager, Mackenzie Campbell back in February 2024. From there, she began experimenting with slate, bricks and other natural minerals, and adding in binders and natural preservatives to create workable paints which would eventually be part of the experimentation process for this course! But, before we share more about the workshop (Spoiler: it was fascinating!), we thought you might be curious about the history of natural pigments, which was incorporated into the beginning of the workshop as a 10 minute educational presentation. After all, Holistic Education is one of our core values at The Brown Homestead, so we couldn’t let folks leave without sharing a bit of history first.
A Very Brief History of Natural Pigments in Canada
Natural pigments are part of our land, found in the most obvious and wild places. They are the plants we eat and smell, the rocks we hike over and drive past, and the minerals all around us. Before trade routes came to Canada, creating natural pigments was a significant way of deepening one's connection with the land. [1] Indigenous peoples followed the guiding principles of respect, observation, and curiosity to forage natural pigments and derive paints in their communities to record their histories, proudest moments, and cautions for the next generation. [2]
At The Brown Homestead, there are two trees that are native to Southern Ontario that have been used to create pigments for thousands of years. These are black willows, which, when charred, can create black charcoal and black walnut. Black walnut is a popular source for dyes and stains, and was one of the most common plants used by Indigenous people. As an aside, we recently made our own black walnut stain that we plan to use on the floors in our ballroom.
It is also likely that several other materials used to create natural pigments could have been found across the road in the Short Hills Provincial Park. We do not know for certain, but heritage carpenter and Willowbank instructor Doug Vickers believes that the Brown family would have been able to access minerals used to create yellow ochre, a popular interior colour for houses in Upper Canada in the mid 1800s. Our dining room was once believed to have been painted with a yellow ochre pigment, and the previous homeowner had painted the room in the 1980s to reflect that idea.
John Brown House dining room from 1980s to 2022
To make pigments, earthen materials are ground up into a fine powder and mixed with a binder. Historically, honey, blood, urine, sap, mammal fat, grease, or oil would have been used, and today people often use gum arabic or honey. [3] Remnants of 500 pictographs on the Canadian Shield are some of the few remaining examples of pre-contact indigenous art in Canada. These paintings were created by the ancestors of Algonquian populations, including the Ojibwe, Cree, Innu, and Anishinaabe between the 16th and 17th centuries. [4] One of the most famous pictograph sites in Canada can be found in Agawa Bay in Lake Superior Provincial Park.
Mazinaubikinguning, meaning the “adorned rock on Agawa Lake.” Lake Superior Circle Tour
Colonization and subsequent transatlantic trade significantly changed how natural pigments were accessed and valued in Canada. Painting transitioned from being valued as a craft that was passed down from one generation to the next, to an academic subject, which significantly increased the number of painters and the need for art supplies. [5] With that, a new group of “colourmen” emerged who were responsible for sourcing and supplying all of the art materials and natural pigments needed to make paints, most of which were imported from various places around the world. Colourmen were also bringing over synthetic pigments to Canada at this time, including the very first Prussian Blue, which is found on all of the millwork in The Brown Homestead’s dining room.
Prussian blue paint colour on features in the John Brown House dining room today
As time passed, the practice of making natural pigments from scratch was replaced entirely. In 1859, the first commercial oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania, and a new era of painting had begun. In addition to being used for fossil fuel, oil was studied and chemically isolated to make new substances like plastics and modern paints. With that, the tradition of natural paint-making slipped away because producers of synthetic paints marketed their products as more durable than those sourced naturally. This consumerist ideology continued well into the 20th century, resulting in the exploitation of natural resources at alarming rates.
Fortunately, in recent years, creating with natural paints has experienced a renaissance as certain artists strive to create more sustainably and connect to the environment. This is one of the reasons why we wanted to offer a natural pigments workshop here at The Brown Homestead.
In preparation, we intentionally wanted to incorporate plants found near The Brown Homestead as well as deconstructed building materials from our restoration projects over the years so that we could creatively repurpose our building waste!
Recapping the Natural Pigments Watercolour Workshop
Following a demonstration of making pigments from natural materials, Rémy discussed the types of binders to preserve watercolour paints before proceeding with the step-by-step painting lesson. Throughout the workshop, Rémy emphasized that watercolour is a process of layering from light to dark and that every painting is unique.
A few additional natural pigments incorporated into the workshop included charcoal to paint the roof and cast shadows as well as beets for the fascia, pediment, and windows, spinach and kale for the front door and grass, and eggplant mixed with baking soda for the blue sky. Participants also learned terms used to describe the architecture of the John Brown House, as well as various building principles to be mindful of, including how to prevent running joints while painting stones on the facade.
It was thrilling to watch different interpretations of the same scene come to life. From experienced painters to novices, we received such great feedback from those who attended as well as suggestions for additional heritage arts workshops — so keep your eyes peeled! Here are a few comments we received through our feedback survey:
“I’m excited to use this knowledge in my classroom. My school specialises in connecting subjects, so Art connected to Science, connected to History was very satisfying.”
“Each part was planned so perfectly and the time flew by. I’m just looking at the handout thinking that now I have a “step-by-step” to follow should I choose to do it again. To be honest, I would rather wait to come back to The Brown Homestead to do it again! That is truly a compliment to your program and all of you at The Brown Homestead.”
Our sincerest thank you to Rémy for her months of experiential learning that contributed to the successful delivery of our first (of many!) heritage arts workshops. Additionally, this event would not have been possible without the support of our hard-working staff and volunteers who contributed to the preparation and execution of the day.
Spots are limited for our next Oil Paint Lecture on July 24 and Oilcloth Workshop on July 27th so please sign up if interested. We would love to see you there.
Footnotes
[1] Tilke Elkins, Wild Pigment Project, 2019-2024.
[2] Anong Migwans Beam, “Gathering Colour” SNAP, no. 1 (2019): 27-31, accessed June 4, 2024.
[3] Rebecca Sobbi, “Untitled”, Landscape Artist, accessed May 9, 2024.
[4] Vastokas, Joan M.. "Pictographs and Petroglyphs." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published March 21, 2012; Last Edited October 24, 2023.
[5] No author, “A History of Pigment Use in Western Art Part 2,” Paint & Coatings Industry, October 1, 2004, accessed July 2, 2024.