Thoughts on eco-conscious art

As mentioned in my previous post, for the last 3 months or so, I’ve been working on a more environmentally friendly picture making process. I initially tried to paint with powder pigments mixed with a natural binder but lack of experience in using pigments and/or their inherent characteristics made it difficult to achieve the transparent colours - an essential component of my paintings which rely on layering.

I could’ve continued the effort until I somehow found how to use the medium for layering but I had set a cut-off date for the project - 1 May, the submission deadline for the Positive Environmental Art (PEA) Climate Change exhibition. I set this goal as an incentive for not procrastinating and also to create something instead of just keep experimenting. Fear of losing momentum to create and becoming a name-only artist (or a hobyist) is always at the back of my mind.

In the end I resolved the issue with layering using the new medium by painting on thin natural fibre tissues and adhering them onto the substrate. When glue dries, the tissues become almost invisible - magic! This process is technically collage but in my mind it’s painting - tissues and glue adhering the paint instead of acrylic mediums.

Throughout this project, I was thinking more broadly about eco-conscious picture making. The first step is to ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ of art materials but how can we take a more proactive steps? In my project, lack of product information led me to go back-to-the basics and hand-mix paints (Material Choice). And this led me on to think about the issue of suppliers’ production process and transportation (Sourcing). It’s unrealistic to think we can all become 100% eco-friendly artists straightaway, but we can be more mindful in material choice and sourcing. And to minimise the impact of not-yet eco-friendly part of our picture making process, we can be mindful in disposal, too. On manufacturers’ part, I hope they make available more product information written for the users.