Linda Fries

Linda Fries uses hand ground pigments for her abstract paintings.

"My paintings are made with hand ground earth pigments. For the past several years I have been committed to creating art in the most natural way. I have developed a landscape/abstract painting process using only nature's ingredients. I collect my own pigments from the earth. I grind these colored soils by hand and mix them with a plant-based medium to make paint. Some soils are finely ground, while others are left in their original rugged state.

The colors are exactly as I have found them, untouched by any additives or mixing. While the manufacture of most modern art materials can and often does produce toxic or potentially harmful substances, the use of natural earth colors recalls an earlier, more basic way of making art. By painting with these earth pigments, I avoid adding new and often unknown chemical or ecological dangers to our environment."

This is some of her work.

Earth Weave 2:



Canyon Series 1:



Earth Series (Hill) 38:



You can see more of Linda's work on her website.

Maggie Remington

Maggie Remington creates her Earth Paintings onsite, using pigments dug from the site and a glue binder. She lets her paintings dry on the ground, and they don't dry flat or square, becoming sculptural objects.

"I search for my earth colors, studying the landscape and getting to know a place before I dig (always with permission). A southwestern road- or trailside can furnish a glorious batch of natural pigment: gold, green, blue, orange, brown, silver, black, red, pink. I collect dirt, mud, sand, and rock that I crush and mix. Then when wind and weather are right, and I've found the right patch of ground for laying out unprimed unstretched canvas, I'm bent over for about two hours applying color and texture with my hands or weeds, branches, or brush. The piece may then take up to three or four hours to dry enough-to a consistency like a tanned hide-before I can move it. A completed work can suggest, simultaneously, huge forms seen from long distances or small things much magnified. My earth paintings are celebrations of nature: river beds or mountain ranges seen from ten miles up, a canyon's geology, the anatomy of a trout jaw, an amoeba extending a pseudopod, the diagram of a molecule. They provoke reflection and evoke responses to a place and deep healing. They are spiritually expansive and healing; both in the making and the viewing."

These are some of her Earth Paintings.

Log Hill, SW, CO:



Casa Tonanta Tlayacopan, Mexico:



Tiyaweh Trails, Montrose, CO:



You can see more of Maggie's work on her website.

Lorena Babcock Moore

Lorena Babcock Moore grinds her own mineral pigments for her shamanic artwork, and suspends them in a traditional egg tempera binder. The picture below is of the pigments that she uses in her work:



"I have been collecting and using mineral pigments since 1990, and my palette now includes over 40 colors. I grind the rocks in a mortar and pestle and mix with eggyolk-water medium for watercolors and traditional egg tempera paintings. Using tiny brushstrokes, colors are applied one at a time in many thin glazes. This time-consuming process has much in common with pencil drawing. The pigment layers are both transparent and reflective, the colors subtle and complex. Paintings have a luminous intensity that cannot be duplicated in any other medium."

These are some of her mineral pigments in egg tempera paintings.

Going Home:



Island Guardian:



Spirit Sister:



He Who Breaks the Dark:



You can see more of Lorena's artwork and iron work on her website.

Vijali Hamilton

Vijali Hamilton is a large-scale Earthworks artist. She created an Earth mandala that she calls "World Wheel" -- twelve monumental stone sculptures and ceremonial performances circling the globe on the 34th latitudinal parallel. These sculptures and performances were created by Vijali in collaboration with each host community. The World Wheel focuses on spiritual ecological issues activating an awareness of the interrelatedness of all life. Through active participation with local artists, performers and community, World Wheel addresses the people's deepest personal and social concerns, working creatively with them to resolve cultural conflicts. World Wheel provides a transformative experience for the community.

The World Wheel took seven years beginning in Malibu, California and continued on to the Seneca Reservation, New York -- Alicante on the Mediterranean Sea of Spain -- the Umbrian Forest of Italy -- the island of Tinos in Greece -- the desert of Egypt -- the banks of the Dead Sea in Israel and Palestine -- a tiny village in West Bengal, India -- a cave in Shoto Terdrom, Tibet -- a national park in Kunming, Western China -- on the banks of Lake Baikal, Siberia. In October of 1993, the culmination of this journey was in Japan at the ancient Shinto shrine of Tenkawa.

After completing the first World Wheel, Vijali created a second World Wheel, circling the equator forming a nine-pointed star with its center as the center of the earth. The first site is in the Andes of Ecuador. The following sites are Ecuador Amazon, Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Australia, South Pacific Ocean, Kiribati, culminating in California.

"The motivation for the World Wheel came from an experience in the mid 70's when my perception of ourselves and the world shifted, and the Unity of life stood revealed. The next few years were a search for a way to live within this web of life that connects all life. Specific ideas for the World Wheel came to me in a dream; I saw myself carving sculptures out of the living rock and involving people from many culture in a process of ritual in a giant circle around the world. The circle itself represents Unity in the sense that each spoke of the wheel has a quality that is unique, distinct from every other spoke of the wheel and yet it is from these differences that harmony arises, from these differences that the whole is created."

You can see more of Vijali's work on her website.