Pans & Spaces is an art and design
practice, informed by the hues and
contours of nature.
At the onset of Covid-19 in 2020, I found myself running out of my most-used inks. Instead of replenishing art supplies from online stores, I began experimenting with kitchen and garden scraps to create my own water-based dyes, inks and lake pigments.
Having developed these inks and paints in desired richness and consistencies, I use them to create detailed, ephemeral artworks. These original works have found early patronage, as have their print reproductions. My art practice in creating paints and artworks from natural dyes is called Pans & Spaces, where I combine my experiences in visual art and spatial design.
The mulling corner of my small workspace. It is a glass topped side table next to my desk. Seen on it here are some inks and lake pigments I extracted from dried madder (manjistha) root, hibiscus flower, pomegranate skin and turmeric powder sourced from my kitchen and garden in Chennai, India.
These are the swatches of the pigments I created from natural kitchen and garden sources like red soil, manjistha roots, haldi, onion skins, pomegranate skins, hibiscus flowers and red cabbage leaves. Also made verdigris pigment from an old copper cup, and used some bought indigo powder to create paint.
A colour wheel, illustrated by depicting the natural source of the colour itself. Clockwise from red - madder roots, red earth, marigold yellow, hibiscus green, verdigris blue-green, and indigo blue.
Print reproductions of the original natural dye/ink/pigment paintings.
Available for purchase.
