The Children’s Earth Paint Kit is water soluble, meaning you mix the powdered paint with water, and it cleans up with water. It is intended for children of all ages and adults who enjoy craft projects.
The Earth Oil Paint Kit and Complete Eco-friendly Oil Paint Kit are for oil painters. Visual artists and professional artists mix these pure, powdered earth pigments with oil to create essentially the same oil paint that Rembrandt used before tubes of paint were invented.
The blue and purple pigments are the only colors that have been fired and manipulated to get this vibrant color. It is composed of 90% earthen clay and 10% man-made, non-toxic minerals, and it is heated in an oven to a high temperature. Throughout history, blues in nature were very rare and usually made with precious stones like Lapis Lazuli. These stones are now unsustainably harvested in Afghanistan, so we have found this beautiful and non-toxic alternative.
Titanium dioxide occurs in nature as the well-known mineral, Rutile. Rutile is the second most abundant mineral sand. It has been processed to extract the pure white mineral that we use in our paint kits.
We have a Natural Beeswax Varnish recipe for painted wood items (not oil paintings) - blog link here. We are in the process of formulating our own Natural Varnish recipe for oil paintings - coming soon!
We purchase our pigments from small quarries all over the world (U.S., France and Italy) - depending on where that color pigment is prevalent in the ground. We manufacture our paints in Ashland, Oregon.
Earth pigments have been used by most indigenous cultures to paint their faces and bodies for thousands of years. Native Americans mixed earth pigments with bear fat or other binders. Our Natural Face Paint kits are made with a cosmetic-grade pigments and organic ingredients. However, the Children's paints contain gum arabic and corns starch and they may be drying or irritating to the skin. Some customers still use the children's paints on skin though. Use at your own discretion.
Yes, you can paint murals or decorative art on your walls with both the Children's paint and the Earth Oil paint. Remember that the Children's paints are water-soluble, so wet kids' fingers will smear it. Our recommendation is to mix the powdered Earth pigments with wheat paste as the binder. You can see our recipe here.
You can also make your own Clay House paint using natural pigments. The step by step tutorial can be found HERE.
- Oil painters who are sensitive to, or simply want to avoid exposure to solvents (white spirit, mineral spirits, turpentine), heavy metal toxins, petroleum-based pigments, and toxic preservatives.
- Students and teachers in schools and colleges where the practice of oil painting is prohibited because of the terrible-smelling solvents and the heavy metal toxins notorious in readily available paints such as Lead White or any of the cadmium colors.See our Safety page.
- Artists working in shared studio space where the buildup of solvent fumes could lead to an acutely dangerous concentration of vapors.
- Artists who work within a small home environment and wish to reduce the odor of oil painting.
- For travelers, Natural Earth Paints are easy to transport on airplanes since they come in convenient packets of powder that pack easily. Make sure the walnut oil isn't in your carry-on bag, or purchase it separately at a grocery store at your destination.
- Anyone wanting to paint without harming the earth.
- Artists who want more vibrancy and luminosity in their paintings without fillers and preservatives to dull the color.