PAINTING PLANTS
Aster Kruisbrink — paintingplants@agalab.nl
ABOUT
Painting Plants is a public atelier at agalab dedicated to developing biodegradable alternatives to chemical dyes, pigments, and inks — often made from seeds, leaves, and roots grown in agalab’s own dye garden. These plant-based inks support printmaking processes such as painting, silkscreen printing, and etching.
The atelier conducts ongoing research into the intersection of plant biology and artistic material practice. Through workshops, Painting Plants shares its findings with artists, researchers, students, residents, and the wider community, giving participants hands-on experience making and printing with plant-based inks.
Image: Naan Rijks
HISTORY
Painting Plants was founded in 2011 by Naan Rijks (1944–2025), a biologist, visual artist and graphic artist, from her research into the relationship between plant biology and artistic material practice. Originally developed as Blauwe Maandag at agalab, the project explored how plants could be transformed into dyes, pigments, paints and inks for artistic and printmaking processes. Over the following decade, Rijks developed a research garden and laboratory while sharing her findings through workshops, seminars and open-source resources with artists, designers, students and the agalab community. In 2024, the project entered a new phase under the supervision of Aster Kruisbrink and Jesse Greulich.
WORKSHOPS
Each year, agalab collaborates with Painting Plants on a series of specialised workshops. Participants make their own natural inks and pigments using various binding techniques and harvested roots, leaves, and seeds from the garden, then use them for artistic printmaking. The workshops are designed to equip you to work independently, both in making your own plant-based inks and with using the agalab print facilities.
We offer the following workshops:
agalab x Painting Plants
Screenprinting with Natural Inks
€200
19 September 2026
21 November 2026
🕰️ 10:00—17:00 📍 AGALAB, Amsterdam
Max. number of participants: 6
Painting Plants and agalab join forces to teach you all about screen printing with natural inks — we’ll spend the first part of the day making our own inks, then bring them to life through silkscreen in the second.
To register, email info@agalab.nl
agalab x Painting Plants
Line etching with Natural Inks
€200
3 October 2026
🕰️ 10:00—17:00 📍 AGALAB, Amsterdam
Max. number of participants: 6
Painting Plants and agalab join forces to teach you all about etching with natural inks — we’ll spend the first part of the day making our own inks, then bring them to life through line etching in the second.
To register, email info@agalab.nl
In addition to the collaborative program Painting Plants holds an independent workshop for plant-based ink-making:
Painting Plants
Natural Ink & Pigment Workshop
€95
31 October 2026
We work with a variety of plants seasonally harvested from and around the Painting Plants Garden, exploring how plant-based colour can be transformed into lasting textile dyes.
To register, email paintingplants@agalab.nl or read more on https://www.paintingplants.nl/natuurlijke-inkt-pigment-workshop/
GARDEN
The Painting Plants garden is located on-site, growing around 30 different dye plants and a number of trees, such as mulberry and walnut. With the plants we make colours which in their own pigment are rich with variety of tones, varying from swampy greens to bright yellows, and deep blues to earthy browns. We are taking steps to make the garden healthy and resilient so that the cycle can renew and sustain itself.
Anyone interested to volunteer is welcome to help out in the garden and learn about the plants and the dye-making process on the following dates:
16 september, 10am – 12am
26 september, 10am – 12am
Please email paintingplants@agalab.nl with the subject [Volunteer, [date]].
Image: Carlos Felipe Guzmán
RESEARCH AND COLLABORATION
Painting Plants welcomes artists, designers, residents, students, and members of the public to use the atelier and receive guidance for their own dye-plant research outside workshop hours.
Current projects include:
Dye Plants
A research on plant-based ink paint making and dying with plants from the dye garden.
Colour-La(c)k
Colour-La(c)k is an investigation into how to block colour on paper and textile by making a dye-resistant paste from abundant, locally-sourced ingredients.
Artist-in-Residence
Artists-in-Residence at agalab can opt to collaborate with Painting Plants atelier, using either natural materials from the garden to explore plant-based pigments and inks, or initiate working with other plant matter with pigment properties.
To use the atelier during your residency, please get in touch at least four weeks in advance.
For more extensive documentation on the research done with Painting Plants, visit paintingplants.nl