Saturday March 17  10AM – 12 PM

Go green” in the art studio for St. Patty’s Day and for the Earth and learn how to make earth paints from natural pigments and colored clay. Create your own brushes from plant stalks and use your new artist tools to create unique and natural art projects including eco-stationary with leaf and vegetable prints, glue batik  designs with earth paints, and painting smooth river stones for your garden or home.

All materials included: includes Earth Paint Kit to take home (retail value $29.99)!

REGISTER ONLINE: www.roguegallery.org

$42 members/ $50 non-members

Need help paying for a class? Scholarships are available! Call for info.

Ignite the Mind, Stir the Soul, Open the Heart… Boldly Create

Rogue Gallery & Art Center 40 South Bartlett Street, Medford, OR 97530

(541)772-8118

After a year of hard work I’ve finished illustrating my first chilldren’s book, “Simple Pleasures”, and it has been published by the author, Myron Cretney.

“Simple Pleasures” is an earth-centered book about enjoying nature and how you can have fun without batteries and gadjets at any age.

The book is for sale for $9.95 plus $5 shipping for a signed paperback. Enjoy!

To purchase a book. click here or mail checks to: Leah Mebane  PO Box 94  Ashland, OR  97520

Paint your world with colors from the earth 

Earth Oil Paint Kit

Two new easy-to-use kits make wonderful holiday gifts!

These naturally colored clays—some millions of years old—are collected from the earth, dried, crushed, and sifted to create the pure pigments used in my kits. The resulting paint is very high quality, completely Earth friendly, and naturally non-toxic while producing a rich, luminous luster. All packaging is made of 100% post-consumer recycled and biodegradable materials.

Children’s Earth Paint Kit  

Organic and eco-friendly, it’s composed primarily of natural earth pigments and organic milk powder.

Mixing water with the six powdered colors produces creamy paint similar to tempera. Unlike typical children’s paints that are thin, transparent and full of fillers and preservatives, these are non-toxic, rich, and vibrant. Both children and adults will love expressing themselves on a range of materials including paper, canvas, stones or wood.

The kit includes six earth colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and brown), biodegradable mixing cups, complete directions, nature-based activity ideas, and more). $29.95

Earth Oil Paint Kit

These professional-quality oil paints can be used on canvas, wood, primed paper or any surface that regular oil paint is used on. Unlike traditional tube oil paints, these paints contain no preservatives, fillers, heavy metals or toxins. They also offer excellent UV resistance, longevity and are beautifully radiant on the canvas. They also mix with tube oil paints perfectly.

The kit contains six earth pigments (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown), refined walnut oil, and complete directions. Included are tips on eliminating toxins from the oil painting process and more). $39.95

Order kits at: www.naturalearthpaint.com

The website also includes earth paint recipes, nature based art activites, earth paint history, photos, videos and more….

I was very honored to be interviewed by a Journalism class at Willow Wind School  last month. Here is the winning class interview by Hazel Richards and Dana Baughman. I love the last line.

To share her love of painting with natural pigments, she has designed two kits, one for children and another for adults. The kits will be for sale in local stores and on her website WWW.NaturalEarthPaint.COM this fall. While you are at her personal website, www.FanningArt.com,  you can look at photos and read about her art. In addition to earth paintings, Leah paints portraits and makes murals of things in nature, such as trees and lizards. Leah moved here after living all over the U.S. She has lived in Ashland for four years. After living all over the country, instead of finding Ashland boring, she says, “It is wonderful to live in Ashland.”

working on the last children's book paintings

I spent a wonderful weekend at the Chinook Artist Retreat in Klamath Falls two weeks ago. The grounds were pretty amazing with a huge, light-filled studio (windows all the way around), a separate living space with bedroom and access to a big living room, dining room and kitchen. And the best part, a beautiful bath house with hot tub, sauna and showers. It was also surrounded by gardens, a labyrinth, and magical woods with a bald eagle preserve. The prices were very affordable and seem pretty flexible since this is a brand new retreat. The owners, Robert and Sharon Chinook, were so sweet and generous and even gave us some homemade stew.

Django gives helpful advice

I have to give a shout out to my husband Drew who played in the woods with baby Django for two full days so that I could paint! I was able to almost finish my nature inspired children’s book (which is now done!) and 3 small abstracts on wood panels inspired by the surrounding Junipers.

"The composition is all wrong, mom!"

Go to: http://www.chinookretreats.com/home   for photos, info and pricing if you’re interested. You can stay for a month, a week or a few days.

A new discovery was just reported in the New York Times of a
100,000 year old paint making workshop in a South African cave. The
archeologists found hundred’s of pieces of red ocher stone, special ocher
grinding stones, tools made from animal bones and large abalone shells where
the paint was mixed. Before this discovery, the oldest workshop discovered was
60,000 years old while the oldest cave art found was 40,000 years old (and the
most famous cave paintings in Lascaux,  France was only 17,000 years old).

paint in abalone shells

The cave is called Blombos, on a high cliff overlooking the
Indian Ocean (hence the abalone shells) on the tip of South Africa. These
paint makers blended the red ocher with the binding fat of mammal-bone marrow,
charcoal, quartz grains and an unknown liquid in the shells and then scooped it
out with bone spatulas. To read the NY Times article click here.

Even though I now have only natural art materials around, I have to admit that I spent most of my life bathing in turpentine and leaving heavy-metal laden paints on my skin to seep into my bloodstream. Noone ever brought up the subject in high school or art school or beyond so I didn’t worry about it. Even if I wasn’t an artist, just living on this planet means we need to detoxify or lesson our toxic load (since it’s impossible to completely detoxify). I went to a great class recently by two naturopaths who were also experts on detoxifying your system. They first told us that most humans on the planet have around 200 types of toxins in their body already and that there is no place on earth without toxins. Also, most newborn babies are born with around 170 types of toxins on their bloodstream (tested only minutes after birth).

The more you cleanse and take a few steps to detoxify, the better you feel- more energy, vitality, fewer colds, illnesses, diseases, the benefits are endless. I’ll mention a few of the daily and weekly detox habits that they suggested.

Daily: Releasing toxins from the skin: They begin every morning (or every time you shower) by dry brushing your entire body with a loofah mit or brush. It doesn’t have to take long, just 60 seconds or so. Then they coat their body with organic sesame oil. Next, they take a warm shower (no soap except on the underarms). Then they do a little water therapy by turning the shower to hot for 30 seconds (not scalding but just a little hotter than is comfortable), then cool for 30 seconds (not freezing, just refreshing), back to hot and then end with cool. This does alot to get those toxins out through the skin.

Weekly: Eat all fruits and vegetables one day a week, along with some good fats (coconut oil and olive oil).

Monthly: They also suggest seasonal cleanses that go much further.

painting with respirator - not fun

To learn how to detoxify your studio, go to my previous blog entry on “Non-toxic Oil Painting” to find out more.

One page from upcoming Children's book

A new project in the works! I’m illustrating a sweet little children’s book by my friend, Myron, about how children can find fun and joy in nature without batteries, plastic or electronic gadgets. Just simple play in nature. I’ll let you know when it’s complete.

Japanese Maple Mural in Bathroom

I’ve been having a wonderful time painting sweat peas, snakes, lizards, calla lilies and red maple trees in a private home this past week. I’ll be painting tree frogs in the entranceway next week!

Tree frogs on philodendron leaves

Painting sweet pea vines

Burgandy Calla Lilies in bathroom

friendly snakes in the grass

sweet pea vines

collared lizard

International, UK based, magazine Resurgence printed this article by myself and British artist, Cea Blythe. If you can’t read the text click HERE.