Beam Paints

My wife is a watercolor artist in her free time and just found a wonderful resource for hematite pigment. Harvested by an M’Chigeeng First Nation company on Manitoulin Island. She just received them today.

It’s not cheap. But, I’m told there is no replacement for quality paint.

I just wanted to do a shoutout about a First Nations small business.

From their About Page:

Beam Paints is the result of a multi-generational love of pigment, paint, colour, and innovation. I was raised by my artist parents, Carl Beam and Ann Beam, and was taught from a young age how to harvest hematite pigment in the LaCloche mountain range near our home in M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. Beam Paints draws on my early educations in Indigenous pigment and expands it to encompass all paint traditions. A focus on high quality pigment content creates sublime artist materials, with plastic free packaging. Beam Paints is 100% Anishnaabe Kwe owned, and operating in our home reserve of M’Chigeeng First Nation, we are happy to employ paintmakers and woodworkers, men and women from our communities including M’Chigeeng, Sagamok and Wikwemikong. Click on one of these articles to find out more:

www.thefoundryhomegoods.com/blogs/jou…

Lightfast pigments, gum arabic, and Manitoulin maple sap blend together to create a handmade saturated colour that is a joy to paint with. From thick stripes to fine washes and details, quality is evident in every stroke. Our watercolours are shaped into paintstones, our version of a half-pan, before being wrapped in beeswaxed cloth. Our pans are packaged in slices of cedar and birch offcuts from an Indigenous sustainable lumber operation.