Natural Earth Paint

In 2009, professional artist, mom, and environmentalist Leah Fanning had a large, one-woman gallery exhibition planned and needed to paint full-time for a year to prepare for it. She also found out she was pregnant with her first child around the same time. So, to protect her baby’s health, she ditched every toxic art supply in her studio, including paints, thinners, and primers. 

But what was the alternative to conventional paints? Leah drew inspiration from the cave painters through the Renaissance masters and took to nature to find her supplies. “I actually went into the woods and harvested all the pigments myself,” she recalls, smiling. “I would never leave home without a trowel and a bag. If I saw beautiful colors in the strata on the roadside, I would jump out of my car and gather the pigments.” She discovered that using natural pigments and oils creates paintings that are more radiant and archival, and without fillers, natural paints have a brilliant luminosity that can’t be found anywhere else. 

After discovering that even conventional children’s paints contain harmful toxins, she had an epiphany.

“It just hit me that I should create a business about this. I should make oil paints and kids paints and educate the world.”

A year later, Natural Earth Paint was born.