Marie Schechter

This body of work began with a visit from a deer and a series of encounters with the wild. As development continues to reshape the landscape, animals once hidden deep within the forest are moving closer to human spaces in search of food, water, and shelter. Their presence at these shifting boundaries inspired this exploration.
Each painting is created using foraged materials that have been processed into plant-based pigments and palettes, grounding the work in the environments from which it emerged. Mycelium serves as both a material and a metaphor, representing the vast network of life that exists beneath the surface. Through its delicate threads, the work reflects the interconnectedness of all living things and suggests that, through a single strand, we are all connected.

American Indians cultivated and gathered sunflowers for thousands of years, using different parts of the plant to create a wide array of natural dyes, as well as for food, medicine, and building materials.

I teach this and have created a laked pigment which means I brought the flower to a liquid dye and then into a powder. This allows you to store it for as long as you need. Liquid dyes being used for paint will quickly begin to fade, lose saturation and fungal growth.

Colors that you can yield from sunflowers:

The Hopi Black Dye Sunflower: Cultivated over centuries in the arid Southwest, the Hopi people (known as Tceqa' Qu' Si in their language) bred a unique variety of sunflower explicitly for its highly potent dye. By simmering these dark seeds and adding natural mordants (such as alum from drying soil or iron from piñon gum), they created stunning maroons, deep purples, and rich blacks for wool, cotton, and basketry.

In recent years, natural dye artisans have revived this ancient kitchen-waste technique, popularizing the dusty blush and “millennial pink” shades derived from the fruit’s skin and pits.

on

Combining historical paint-making methods with a modern glass muller is one of the most effective ways to create eco-friendly plant-based paints. The muller acts as a highly refined descendant of ancient grinding tools, allowing for superior pigment dispersion and a smoother, archival-quality paste.

Plant based paint using historical methods and materials. This is yellow yarrow.