Why paint with pulp? And what is pulp anyway? 👩‍🎨”Pulp” can be made from a lot of materials but in my case I use abaca. Abaca is a fiber from the inner bark of the banana tree. It is extremely strong, acid free, and holds color beautifully. Another use for abaca fiber is to make rigging for sailing vessels and tea bags (ever wonder why yea bags don’t fall apart when dipped in hot water)? 👩🏽‍🎨 If you paint with oil on canvas, there is a good chance you are using abaca. Commercial canvas of the highest quality includes abaca fiber to ensure it is strong enough to be framed without glass. 👩‍🎨But why bother using this material when commercially made paint is available? The answer is simple: texture. My work is largely representational with nature imagery as my primary subject. Nature is not only 3D but full of a variety of textures. By using this versatile medium that has a textured quality, I am able to recreate the many textures of nature in my work. From still ponds to crashing shorelines to fields of wild flowers, abaca allows me to recreate these textures on a 2D surface. 👩🏼‍🎨 My slogan “recapture the emotion of nature” comes from using this wonderfully textured material as my painting medium.

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