Pigments + Place Workshop

Join us for this 5-day Pigments + Place Workshop with artist and poet Daniela Naomi Molnar!

Dates: June 25th - 29th

Time: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Location: Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture

Are you ready for the world to become your palette? This workshop will introduce you to the vibrant world of natural pigments. You’ll learn how to ethically forage pigments from the earth — rocks, flowers, roots, bark, bones — and how to transform these materials into any type of paint or ink. You’ll also learn about pigments as a way to creatively engage with ecological issues, including climate change.

Workshop Highlights:

Foraging Materials for Pigment Making: Daniela will lead participants on guided-nature walks where they will get to forage natural materials that will be transformed into pigments. Create your own paint palette sourced from the Sisters bioregion, and learn the skills to continue this practice on your own!

Personal and Shared Reflections: Attendees will be invited to engage in guided conversations, dive into various creative prompts, and preserve time for individual and group reflection.

All skill levels welcome, no experience needed!

All materials will be provided.

For ages 16 and older. Those under age 16 may attend accompanied by an adult.

Workshop Schedule:

Days 1-2: Learn and practice basic pigment-making skills in a guided, supported setting. Discuss and practice foraging for pigments. Learn about each other and the ways we are impacted by environmental issues. Discuss the poetics of pigment.

Days 2 - 4: Guided and supported work on a range of creative prompts designed for all backgrounds and skill levels.

Day 5: Share work, receive and offer feedback, and talk about how to carry this practice into daily life. Leave with a personalized pigment and a parting prompt.

About the Instructor:

Daniela Naomi Molnar is an artist, poet, and pigment worker collaborating with the mediums of language, image, paint, pigment, and place. She is also a wilderness guide, educator, and eternal student. An entry in the Oregon Encyclopedia states, “Molnar pioneered the notion that art can speak to climate change.” Her large-scale, abstract, color-driven paintings speak to this and other thorny issues by inviting the viewer to sense and feel. Using colors she makes herself, her work creates contemplative spaces in which we can re-engage our senses in order to arrive at new, better questions about what it means to be human at a time of crisis. Her work aims to shift us from despair to creative possibility, from trauma to wonder, from isolation to collective purpose. Her work is the subject of a front- page feature in the Los Angeles Times, an Oregon Art Beat profile, and a feature in Poetry Daily. Her visual work 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 is a finalist for the 2024 Oregon Book Award and was selected by Kazim Ali as the winner of Omnidawn’s 1st/2nd Book Award. Forthcoming books include: PROTOCOLS (Ayin Press, 2025), The Ecopoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press, 2025), and Light / Remains (Bored Wolves, 2026). She founded the Art + Ecology program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and helped start and run the backcountry artist residency Signal Fire. Her work often occurs outdoors, in collaboration with global public wildlands.

You can read more about her work with pigments here.

Cancellation Policy:

$20 cancellation fee

Less than 1 week before workshop: 0% refund

7-14 Days before workshop, 50% refund

Full refunds will be given if PMRCAA cancels the event due to inclement weather, or if the instructor cannot teach the workshop.

All workshop cancellation requests must be submitted in writing to SW5xdWlyaWVzIHwgcm91bmRob3VzZWZvdW5kYXRpb24gISBvcmc=

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Also check out other Arts events in Sisters, Workshops in Sisters, Literary Art events in Sisters.