Handmade Paints

I recently heard about Linda Fries, the artist who did the above painting. She's concerned about the toxicity of art supplies, and hand-grinds pigments for her paintings. Fries teaches art and ecology workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has published an Artist Alert! brochure suggesting alternatives for healthier art-making.



Jennifer Wolf is another artist who grinds pigments for her paintings and suspends them in an acrylic medium binder. One of Wolf's luminous paintings is pictured above. Wolf's studio is in Venice, and I have seen her work at Gallery C in Hermosa Beach and William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica.

I'm fascinated with the concept of nontoxic paints handmade from natural materials, but who has the time to grind their own pigments and make their own paints? I really admire artists like Fries and Wolf who take this extra step in creating their art.