Each box set includes three colours made from acid mine drainage: Brown Ochre, Rust Red, and Iron Violet.

It comes with a ready-to-use primed painting surface crafted from sustainably harvested North American birch.

Every speck of pigment in these tubes has been painstakingly reclaimed from waters tainted by iron released from mines. Iron oxides make lightfast, natural, and safe oil paints.

We want to put them where they belong. On your palette.

John Sabraw and engineer Guy Riefler figured out how to extract iron from the polluted rivers, restore ecosystems, and create economic opportunities in small communities struggling with unemployment and environmental damage left behind by the coal mining industry. This project, known as the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Economic Development Program, has shown that once iron is removed, plants and aquatic life can return in as little as one year.

The process begins with collecting contaminated water in large tanks. To neutralise the water’s acidity, a base is added, then oxygen. This causes the dissolved iron to crystallise and settle. The result: clean water on top and non-toxic iron oxide pigment on the bottom. The clean water is returned to the river where it is safe for aquatic life* and the iron oxides are dried into lightfast and safe artist pigment. The pigment is heated to various temperatures to achieve each colour.

The team has discovered that within just one year after cleanup, life returns to these once barren waters.