The Maker

My name is Sierra (they/them). I’m a pigment artist currently working on unceded Lekwungen territory on Vancouver Island. In short, I craft watercolour paint from pigments found in nature. I love working with colours from the landbases I frequent. It’s an amazing way of building intimacy with a place. I’m learning the trade of pigment foraging, harvesting colour from the land itself in small amounts.

I’ve been a long distance hiker since high school, when I walked from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. I think that’s really where my love for wild pigments started. Each and every landbase carries their own unique colour palette, from the rocks and soils to the plants, the fungi, the skeletons and shells left behind by their residents. It’s incredibly powerful, to move between these landbases and watch their tones shift. I’ve wished I could capture those colours and bring them to life for a long time.

The Project

Understory Supply Co. is my ongoing project, where I work to slowly document these colours in the form of watercolour paint. The paints that I offer are made from natural mineral and botanical pigments, both sourced from around the world and gathered by hand from the regions I’ve visited.

It’s an incredible process, to work with a pigment from start to finish. To dig the soil with bare fingertips, or to gather tumbled stones from a river. To see those hints of colour in the wild and watch them transform as they’re powdered, mixed and mulled into paint. Probably the most beautiful part of it all for me is to then see those colours being used by others, and to think back to where they came from. To see their stories carrying on. For me, using foraged colours keeps me feeling grounded and connected in my work.