Pigment hunting is more fun than Easter. There is something magical about finding an element straight from nature and transforming it into something useful and beautiful. Earth pigments are natural colored minerals that can be found in rocks and clays and can be used to create paints. Scott Sutton, a local Portland artist and earth pigment guru, took me on a hunting trip and studio tour of his art and pigment collection. Scott knows more about minerals and geology in the area than I could possibly absorb in one afternoon. Tucked away in river beds, rock slide areas and ocean cliffs, earth pigments cover every continent on earth and were used in the first cave paintings, Egyptian tombs and renaissance master’s pallets.  These ancient minerals are gems of nature waiting to be discovered. Get outside and look around or just join me on the next hunt 🙂

Spruce pine cones before they are fossilized

Spruce cones after fossilization contain a rare blue pigment inside, found on the coastal cliffs of Oregon.

St Johns Bridge from Scott’s studio.

Art by Scott Sutton

Scott built his studio and adjacent greenhouse using several sustainable techniques including Shou-Sugi-Ban, a Japanese technique of burning wood to make it weather and pest resistant for up to 80 years and C02 sucking hempcrete.

Colored rocks found in an Oregon river

St Johns Bridge and the toxic green algae washed ashore