Faithful readers know that I am a huge fan of Gamblin's gray-toned paint called "Torrit Grey". It is manufactured with the pigments gathered from the factory's air filtration system when it is cleaned every year. Such a great recycling of tiny waste particles of all types of pigments! I've written more about it here.
Now Gamblin has gone a step beyond. They have just released a trio of paint colors called "Reclaimed Earth". The Gamblin team has gathered water that has been contaminated by toxic sludge, put the water into large vats, distilled out its pigments, and made those pigments into fine artists' paints. Not only does this yield some beautiful earth colored pigments, it purifies the water so that it can be returned to the rivers from whence it came. It may be an over-used term, but if this isn't a win-win, I don't know what is.
This effort has involved artists, engineers, environmentalists and students from Ohio University. It caps a decades long effort to find a sustainable solution to the toxic sludge that seeps from abandoned coal mines along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Initial funding was provided through Kickstarter, and ultimately involved the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. It's a great story, and you can read the full plot here.
I can hardly wait to get my hands on some "Brown Ochre", "Rust Red" and "Iron Violet". It will be fun to see how these colors play with others, and I love a good earth tone palette. Plus 20% of the proceeds are returned to the recycling project. And the packaging is sustainable too! I hope that these colors will be a hit with painters, and will remain in production, continuing to contribute to the clean up of our rivers.
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