In my past blog post on “How to make your art practice more green and sustainable” , I mentioned some ideas for art supports such as using existing cardboard, posterboard and fabrics. I confess this is an area that I had not given too much thought to in my art practice. So, I started doing some research and found out that some of the most well-known manufacturers of art papers have products that feature recycled fibers in them. For example, Strathmore uses recycled paper in their Recycled and Artagain pads. Some products contain from 30-75% post-consumer fiber content and others use cotton, hemp or even bamboo fibers. Their Toned Tan, Toned Blue, and Toned Grey sketch and mixed media papers, which I love and use frequently, also contain 30% post-consumer fiber. Canson also uses post-consumer fiber content in their XL Recycled, XL Recycled Bristol, XL Recycled Drawing, and XL Recycled Sketch pads. There are also recycled sketch pads from Bee paper.
For watercolorists, I found that the Shizen professional watercolor paper is hand-made in India from 100% recycled materials.
In my teens I also learned to recycle paper myself to make greeting cards and such. I just had my grandpa make a wooden frame and staple a piece of screening material on it and presto. I decorated the paper with dried flowers and leaves and the result was beautiful and unique. Here are some instructions if you want to try it yourself. I skipped the blender part and just used my hands to blend the pulp and the water. That worked well enough.
Another thing I constantly do is to re-use paper if I do not like the final result of a painting. For watercolors, one can always use the back of the paper. I often just gesso over “failed” watercolors and paint in acrylics on top or simply fix or finish the painting using acrylics or pastels. For a while, I was also into making monoprints using the Gelli Arts gelatin printing plate. I made lots of my monoprints on tissue paper and then used it on collages such as in the “Koi” painting at the top of this blog post.
Artists, do you have any other eco tips for fellow artists? Any recycled paper that you like? Please leave me a comment below. In a future blog post, I hope to post about other eco-friendly supports such as canvas, boards, etc. So stay tuned for more…
A monoprint I made using the Gelli Arts gelatin printing plate.