31 Jul 2020
The Importance of Natural Colors
1
I always believe life close to nature is the most beautiful one and try my best to live an environment-friendly life. Years after my childhood, I felt like painting and looked into my cupboard for old art supplies. Since I was in the transition towards a toxic-free lifestyle, the moment I saw those paint bottles, […]

I always believe life close to nature is the most beautiful one and try my best to live an environment-friendly life. Years after my childhood, I felt like painting and looked into my cupboard for old art supplies. Since I was in the transition towards a toxic-free lifestyle, the moment I saw those paint bottles, I realized that they are not environment-friendly and started exploring the world of natural colours.

Natural Colour extraction from a stone
Colour extraction from a stone

Most of the paints we purchase from art supply stores contain heavy toxic metals and petroleum-based chemicals that are highly unsafe for our health and environment.

Natural orange colour from Annatto seeds
Natural orange colour from Annatto seeds

Manufacturing and usage of these synthetic colours lead to life-threatening diseases and also they heavily pollute the water bodies. Synthetic colours are in use only for past hundred years but the natural colours are used since historic times which are clearly evident through the early cave paintings.

Until the modern era, natural pigments extracted from plant parts and earth minerals were used by humans for artworks, fabric dying, face painting, wall painting and staining other objects. Every colour from nature is unique. Some colours from nature fade in a week while some colour lasts for hundreds of years. In addition to being environmentally safe, natural colours especially those from plants and clays have various health benefits..

Foraging the raw materials from nature, processing them into paints and using it to create art is a beautiful process which connects us with mother nature. Anyone can make natural colours at home with simple kitchen ingredients like turmeric for yellow, beetroot for pink, spinach for green or take some garden soil for brown.

As most children love to paint with their fingers, natural colors are completely safe for them. I have started my venture Happy Terra to revive the traditional environment-friendly practices and conduct workshops on how to make colors from plants, clays, and rocks. Once you start using natural colors, you will fall in love with it’s natural beauty and never go back!

(The views expressed in the article are the author’s own. Let Me Breathe neither endorses nor is responsible for them.) 

Related Written Stories
Comments