From Farm To Canvas

Davida LaCosse’s Advanced Chemistry students made an on-campus field trip to the Farm as part of a lab exploring how artists can use chemistry to create unique paint colors, an art in itself. Amidst the herbs and vegetables, students gathered flower petals from marigolds, echinacea, hairy vetch, and others. Handfuls of petals were then submerged in 95% alcohol and shaken vigorously to saturate the petals and facilitate breakdown of the plants.

 

Students left their petal jars for 48 hours, used a Buchner funnel to remove any solids or other debris from the material and then waited for any remaining alcohol to evaporate, leaving only the pigment, a pure plant material. Sienna, purple, orange, yellow, and green were transported from the flowerbeds at the Farm to the chemistry lab in MASC.

 

To make their extracts useful, the students then added a little distilled water and mixed the result with egg yolk to create one-of-a-kind tempera paints. For the final step, students actually used the paint to make art, studying the colors and how they interact on paper.

 

From start to finish, the flower-petal-color-extraction-painting-experiment encompassed many of Millbrook’s core values. Students gained insight and a deeper appreciation of the natural world and the resources all around them. From the farm to the lab to the studio, students engaged in a timeless procedure, learning at every step.