Description
Led by artist and poet Daniela Naomi Molnar, this 5-night workshop/residency builds on the ideas and skills of the Pigment + Place workshop, allowing experienced pigment-makers to go deeper into the techniques and poetics of a pigment-making practice. You’ll learn new skills to expand your practice and gain new insights into the ways pigment-making can help us creatively engage with ecological issues, including climate change.
We’ll dive right in on Day 1 with creative prompts, skill-sharing, optional field trips to pigment-foraging spots, discussions, studio time, and optional studio visits. Over the course of 4 days, we’ll revisit some readings and topics from Pigment + Place and consider plenty of new ones together, too. We’ll wrap up on the last day with the opportunity to share your work and ideas with the group. You can expect lots of laughter, camaraderie, inspiring ideas, beautiful expeditions, revitalized friendships, collaborations, gorgeous colors, and new ideas and techniques for your pigment practice.
What you will learn and experience:
- Learn new pigment-making techniques.The instructor will reach out prior to the course so we can tailor the course to the pigments and techniques participants are most curious to explore.
- Deepen and expand your experience of the unique natural pigments, ecology, and cultures of Playa’s bioregion.
- Continue to explore pigment practice as a way to creatively engage with ecological issues, including climate change. We’ll build on previous ideas, sharing our experiences, reflecting on recent research, current events, and topics of specific interest to participants.
- Engage with creative prompts that will deepen and expand your experience of this unique bioregion and of the creative process as a way to engage with ecological issues, including climate change.
- Learn more about how to ethically forage and produce pigments from the earth.
- Learn more about the cultural, ecological, and artistic significance of natural pigments through discussion, reading, and application. All readings from Pigment + Place will be available as well as many additional readings and resources.
- Expand your personal ethos around pigment practice and learn from others who are doing the same.
- Learn more about the cultural and ecological history of both synthetic and natural pigments.
- Explore experimental painting techniques focused on the interaction between pigments, water, and paper.
- Play, explore, laugh, ask answerable and unanswerable questions, watch the stars, rest, regenerate, eat well, and deepen friendships.
Details and Agenda
Instructor: Daniela Naomi Molnar
Dates: Wednesday, June 11 – Monday, June 16, 2025
Arrival: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Departure: Monday, June 16, 2025
Skill Level: This course is appropriate for you if you’ve: a) taken the Pigment + Place workshop or a comparable course; or b) you have previous experience working with pigments, have learned the basic skills, and wish to deepen and expand your practice. If you’re not sure if this is the right course for you, don’t hesitate to contact Daniela to ask.
Mobility Level: Moderate – ability to walk on gravel and dirt in the outdoors and explore outdoor areas for 1-3 hours at a time. Options for longer hikes. The course can also be adapted for someone with limited mobility. They may not be able to participate in all outings but there are many opportunities to modify as needed.
See below the agenda for important information about what art supplies to bring with you!
Instructor Bio
Daniela Naomi Molnar is a poet, artist, and writer who works with color, water, language, and place. She creates paintings using pigments made from plants, bones, stones, rainwater, and glacial melt. Her poems and essays are developed alongside these pigments and paintings, with each practice influencing the other to form new ecologies.
Her work is the subject of a front-page feature in the Los Angeles Times, a PBS Oregon Art Beat profile, an entry in theOregon Encyclopedia, and a feature in Poetry Daily. Her artwork has been shown nationally, is in public and private collections internationally, and has been recognized by numerous grants, fellowships, and residencies.
Her debut book, CHORUS, won the 2024 Oregon Book Award for Poetry and was selected by Kazim Ali as the winner of Omnidawn Press’ 1st/2nd Book Award. Forthcoming titles include PROTOCOLS (Ayin Press, 2025), Memory of a Larger Mind (Omnidawn, 2028), and Light / Remains (Bored Wolves Press, 2026). Her work will also be included in the forthcoming Volume 2 of The Ecopoetry Anthology. She founded the Art + Ecology program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and helped start and run the backcountry artist residency Signal Fire.
All year, she looks forward to teaching at PLAYA. She is especially excited for this new version of Pigment + Place.
www.danielamolnar.com / Instagram:@daniela_naomi_molnar
Agenda
Day 1 – Arrival Day // Wednesday, June 11
1:00 – 4:00 pm: Arrival
6:00 pm: Meet and Greet (BYOB and snacks)
Day 2 // Thursday, June 12
Field trip, studio class time, and prompts
6:00 pm: Group dinner provided by PLAYA
Day 3 // Friday, June 13
Studio day with optional studio visit by Daniela
Day 4 // Saturday, June 14
Field trip and studio time with optional studio visit by Daniela
Day 5 // Sunday, June 15
Share work
Day 6 // Monday, June 16
Depart by 12:00 pm
Recommended Equipment List to Bring:
- Hat
- Sunscreen
- Insect Repellent
- Water bottle(s)
- Binoculars
- Hiking poles if you use them
- Hiking shoes
- Clothes for layering (can be hot in the day, cold at night)
Suggested Materials List to Bring
Please don’t hesitate to be in touch with any questions on supplies! Pigment work is supply-intensive but there is actually not very much you need to bring. The list below is full of suggestions, not requirements.
Pigment-processing supplies:
- Bring everything you use to make pigments! We’ll share skills and materials so bring extras of anything you’d like to share. Here’s a checklist of common items but just bring whatever you already have:
- mortar + pestle
- muller + glass plate
- gum arabic in powdered form
- any other binders or mediums you use or are curious about
- glass jars with lids, as many as possible, large and small
Pigment-foraging supplies:
- Small plastic bags, reusing existing bags is fine
- Garden gloves/work gloves
- A backpack or other collecting bag
- A sun hat, other forms of sun protection
- A sturdy water bottle
- Sturdy walking/hiking shoes
- Shears (optional)
- A small trowel or spade (optional)
- A small hammer or a rock hammer (optional)
- A chisel (optional)
Paints (recommendations):
- Bring any paints you already own and like using. If you don’t own any paints yet, you don’t need to rush out and buy a bunch — you can buy just a few colors, or you can show up without any paint – it’s up to you. Here are some suggestions if you want to buy some colors. If you choose to buy paints, try to get the real pigments, not the hues if you can afford it:
- Quinacridone rose or pink
- Cadmium red
- Ultramarine blue
- Cobalt blue
- Indigo blue
- Phthalo, manganese, or cerulean blue
- Lemon yellow, cadmium yellow pale, or hansa yellow light
- Cadmium yellow deep
- Sap green
- Chromium oxide
- Ultramarine violet or Dioxazine purple
- Pyrrole orange or cadmium orange
- Burnt sienna
- Burnt umber
- Titanium white
- Mars black
- Any “PrimaTek” pigments made by Daniel Smith that strike your fancy (https://danielsmith.com/product/daniel-smith-primatek-watercolors/)
Paper:
- 2 or more sheets of high-quality watercolor paper. I recommend Arches 300 lb, 16 x 20 or 22×30 (or larger), hot press, rough, or cold press, whatever you prefer
- Small pad or loose sheets of inexpensive watercolor paper to experiment on
- A pad of tracing paper – Canson is a good brand
Other painting supplies:
- Any brushes and mark-making tools you already own. If you don’t own any, here are suggestions:
- #10 and #6 round watercolor brushes
- #1 or #2 small round watercolor brush
- Flat or filbert wash brushes, size 4 or 6 and size 12 or larger
- A large mop brush
- Drawing board to hold your paper
- Clips to hold paper to your board
- Artists tape or painters tape
- Pencils
- Pencil sharpener
- Kneaded eraser
- Any colored pencils and/or pastel pencils you already have
- Any dry pastels or oil pastels you already have
- Palette for mixing colors – an old white plate or pan is fine
- Something to write with and on
- A digital camera (cell phone camera is fine) if you already own one — no need to buy one
- Tracing paper
- Masking tape and a permanent marker for labeling pigments
- Empty spray bottle for water
- A container or spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol
- Ruler
- Rags or paper towels
- Fine or extra fine black felt tip pen (such as Pigma micron in size .01)
- X-acto knife or scissors
- Glue or glue stick
- Charcoal
- Assorted erasers (kneaded, Mars plastic, fine-tip eraser)
- Acrylic matte medium, gloss medium, or other acrylic mediums if you want to make acrylic paints
- If you want to make oil paints, bring linseed or walnut oil or both
Materials Provided by Instructor:
- Specialized pigment-making materials and many pigments to share