From Plant to Pigment: UNM alumna creates her own palette

When Natalie Stopka, a 2023 MFA graduate of The University of New Mexico, walks into her garden in Yonkers, New York, she's not just looking for inspiration, she's harvesting her next palette.

Her recent book, "From Plant to Pigment: How to Make Your Own Vibrant Inks, Pastels and Paints," invites artists to rethink color, literally from the ground up.

"Instead of logging onto a retail website to purchase art materials, I walk into my garden," said Stopka. "I forage color from kitchen waste, weeds and overabundant invasive species."

Released in late October, by Skittledog Books, this studio manual is for artists seeking sustainable alternatives to synthetic materials. Through techniques passed down through history and modern practices, Stopka guides artists and readers in making their own pigments, paints and pastels from plant materials.

Beginning in February 2026, Stopka will take her practices from the pages to the web with a live online mini-series titled "From Plant to Pigment: Cook the Book." The eight-part workshop invites participants to follow along in real time as she walks through hands-on recipes from the book, creating more than six lake pigments and a variety of art materials including inks, paints, pastels and charcoal.

Sessions meet on alternating Saturdays from 1 to 3 p.m. Eastern time, beginning Feb. 14. Topics include pigment extraction methods such as alkaline and fermentation techniques and culminate with art material applications.

Registration is capped and is open to all levels. Each class is recorded, but participants are encouraged to attend live and work alongside Stopka. Participants will also receive a welcome packet and the option to purchase a signed copy of the book or a marbled bookplate to personalize their existing copy.

While many commercial art supplies provide artists with vast options for paints and dyes, they are a threat to the environment. Most paints and dyes are made with petroleum-derived ingredients and can shed microplastics during cleanup. It was because of this research and discovery through years of experience, that Stopka began questioning those materials and looked back to pre-industrial color-making traditions.

"Artists today have a wealth of dazzling pigments, paints and dyes available from commercial retailers," she said. "These are carefully engineered for hue, handling characteristics and durability. However, using these sophisticated materials I found myself spoiled for choice, bereft of conceptual connectivity and concerned about the microplastics shed down the drain of my studio slop sink.

"I began researching artists' materials prior to the synthetic revolution of the late 19th century, looking for the ingredients artists used before synthetic organics and plastics existed. I found an amazing wealth of dyes and pigments that can be safely made in the home studio and are imbued with rich connectivity to the local landscape and ecology."

That led her to the tradition of lake pigments, a key focus of the manual.

"Lake pigments are a class of manmade colors combining the beautiful colors of botanicals with the stability of minerals: the best of both worlds," said Stopka. "Lake pigments have been used for at least a millennia and expand the natural palette of earth tones into a broader range of color.

"Choosing the right plants, those renowned historically for their permanence gives us a triad of stable primaries for mixing: madder red, arzica yellow and indigo blue."

By turning natural dyes into lake pigments, artists can work beyond water-based media and expand into formats such as oil and wax.

"Natural dyes are water-soluble molecules which dissolve into filmy, translucent solution," she said. "They cannot be used in media that is not water-based, such as oil or wax. The process of transmuting dyes into lake pigments gives them substance and insolubility, extending the potential application of these colors into broader media."

While her practice is built on a rejection of plastics and synthetic additives, Stopka said her approach is more about reconnection than restriction.

"My position is not as much turning away from non-renewable synthetics, but as it is turning toward the ecological connectivity, heritage artisanry and material culture of handmade color," she said. "Instead of logging onto a retail website to purchase art materials, I walk into my garden. I forage color from kitchen waste, weeds and overabundant invasive species.

"The light tread, ethic of care and slow craft of this process is not only sustainable in the landscape but nourishing to my artistic practice."

That sense of nourishment is the pit to Stopka's teaching. In addition to her studio practice, she leads courses on surface design techniques and the material history of color at SUNY New Paltz and various craft schools. She believes ancient practices offer an insight in an age where digital media is overtaking the arts.

"The recipes I share with my students and readers are not mine alone but inspired by uncountable generations of plant husbandry and color artisanry," she said. "The skills handed down are almost ineffable, and lodge in muscle memory and tacit knowledge with practice. One finds that by listening carefully and bodily to art materials, they tell us their secrets. They hint at their most eloquently expressive use."

Stopka hopes readers find both satisfaction and surprise in their first experience with pigment making.

"I hope pigment-makers find their first batch of handmade pigment is more than just a color to expend; it's a collaboration with plants, and it's tied into the web of ecology," she said. "Also, 'Wow, that was easier than I expected!'"

She sees making pigments by hand as a way for artists to be more independent and environmentally safe.

"Pigments, paints, inks and dyes are more than just colored light reflected into our eyes," she said. "They are physical ingredients that come from somewhere. To make them by hand gives us a characterful palette that is rich with connectivity, tied to cultural heritage, reclaims a commodified craft and speaks to the ecological realities of our current time."

"From Plant to Pigment: How to Make Your Own Vibrant Inks, Pastels and Paints," is available for purchase in the U.S. and the U.K. in stores such as Barnes and Nobles and Blackwells.

To learn more and for purchase options, go to Stopka's website.