“I held my first exhibition at the Nehru Wangchuk Cultural Center in 2016, and Royal Textile Academy hosted an exhibition on art and raw materials the following year. That same year, I won 2nd prize in the Start-up Innovation Tech Week. In 2019, I participated in the South Asia Art Expo in Kunming, China to display my paintings made with natural pigments. In 2020, I was among the top 5 contestants in the Bhutan-India Start-up Summit. I also secured 3rd position in the traditional painting competition organized by the Royal Textile Academy of Bhutan”, the founder of green pigment art, Penjor Dorji shares.
“Painting is an old and cherished tradition in Bhutan. Nowadays, many painters use imported paint for their art, even on traditional thangkas. But it wasn’t always this way,” he added. Previously, during a bygone era, painters produced natural dyes using natural pigments like plants and soil. Some people also used holy water and medicinal herbs. The cost of natural sources was lower than that of imported paint. Some artists have made the decision to adopt their ancestors’ practices once more, Mr. Penjor Dorji, a craftsman from the Lhuntse region, is one of these artists.
The graduate from Trashiyangtse Zorig Chusum Institute is currently managing the Green Pigment Arts company with the aim of producing the first natural pigment colors in the country. “As part of an ageold tradition, Green Pigment Arts works on extracting natural pigment from plants, trees, vegetables, dirt, etc. to create natural colors” he shares.
Penjor’s Green Pigment company not only supports the environment, but it also works to perpetuate an increasingly extinct tradition. Green Pigment Arts also creates artwork on traditional Bhutanese paper, preserving the nation’s culture and obviating the need to import foreign pigments and supplies.
He learned that natural soil pigments come in different colours. Black soil is sa na, white is sakar, and red lumps are known as tsag sa. Yellow is made from marijuana, light green from mint, dark green from oak leaves, and orange from madder. Walnut covers are used to make brown color paint. About 15 colors have been identified as of now. The artists intend to write a book using the information he have gathered. He hoped that the book would help bring back this priceless culture.
According to Penjor, “Making paint from natural sources is a difficult task. The leaves must first be gathered into a pile. After that, we used a knife to slice the leaves into little pieces. The small bits were then put into a container and ground with a long wooden stick after that. The ground leaves gradually
turned into a paste. Rolling the paste into balls was done then colors will finally show.”
“The reason we want local materials is that we believe it will help a lot of other people such as the raw material collectors, those who weave the nettle canvases, and also local farmer groups,” he said. According to Penjor, thangkas can last 3,000 to 4,000 years, if natural dyes are mixed efficiently
with glue.
Penjor Dorji said that these forms of canvases and colors were used in the past for paintings and thangkas. However, people choose to employ imported substitutes due to the drawn-out and laborious procedure of generating the materials. He continued, “We just hope that we can enhance people’s interest in using such locally made materials. This is a sort of art that should not be forgotten, and that is why we are seeking ways to protect it.”
We utilize nettle canvases since the minerals and pigments we use don’t last very long on the contemporary canvases we buy today, according to Penjor Dorji. The canvases we use are organic, which makes a significant difference in their quality. Green Pigment Arts has even managed to bring traditional Bhutanese paint to an international audience. The artist believes that it could contribute to reviving the culture and inform the people about the natural pigments used and available in the country across the world.
By Rinzin Dema
