The spontaneity of natural colour

21 September, 2021

Until now, colour has never seemed very exciting to me, and I had never been able to put my finger on why until I read The Courage to Create by Rollo May.

Rollo May suggests that true creativity is born from the tension between spontaneity and limits¹. Limits give us something to solve, something to rebel against, to ponder, overcome, and push.

Walking into an art shop and having every colour available with predictive accuracy provides a comforting limit. There is no magic or anticipation when brushing a tube of colour onto paper, but there is trust in its consistency.

In contrast, creating colour from nature is an unpredictable alchemy that is addictive. Natural colour is untamed and unclassifiable. A single plant can provide both spontaneity and limits, along with a deep respect for the plant and it’s resulting colours. My approach to painting has shifted from “What colours do I need to paint ...” to “How can I use this colour in a way that honours this gift from nature?”

Artist and author Sasha Duerr only discovered natural pigments out of necessity. She had such severe reactions to the chemicals in paints that she had to find an alternative. Duerr was taught that a first-hand emotional experience is needed to open someone’s mind to natural colour as an alternative to synthetics².

I think to accept something, you first must understand it. Paul Stamets from the documentary Fantastic Fungi, proposes that just because we cannot understand nature doesn’t negate natures intelligence, it reflects our species inability to communicate. I feel like making natural ink and dye is teaching me to respect natural colour, and is a step towards understanding nature.

1. Rollo May, The Courage to Create (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975).
2. Keith Recker, True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes and Pigments (Loveland, Colorado: Thrums Books, 2019), 227.