Ahmad Nadalian's Painting by colored soils and sands

In the early years of my stay I used colored soils and sands of Hormuz Island in my painting. Later due to the ecological impact of removing such material from the environment I avoid extracting rare colors and will instead locate colored earth from other parts of Iran or use colored powders.

In the first two years on Hormuz Island I lived in nature and isolation. I had a close relationship with living creatures and the elements of nature. In those years I studied the organic minerals such as colored earths, rocks, colored stones and minerals of Hormuz Island and I used them as colors and textures in my painting.

I started my activity in this Island on January 1-5, 2007. As art director of a workshop I changed the approach so the festival focused on environmental art. I am constantly searching for new materials which can be sourced from nature and the land to create my art and propose it for workshops.

In collaboration with local artists we created an environmental painting on a massive scale. Now however for reasons of conservation we limit the damage to the environment and consider our use of organic material, especially with the colored earth because it is quite rare.

From my first trip to Hormuz, I painted student’s faces and hands using the local red earth “Gelak”. This red earth is used to cook “Soragh” which is a traditional food. It consists of organic earth, fish and a kind of lemon or sour orange. Usually Soragh is served with bread. Unfortunately, a local company exports this valuable earth and uses it in industry. It is sad to know that, most of the people of Hormuz do not have enough income and many receive charity from the government. My goal in proposing organic material is to introduce the value of this earth as an art material. Experience shows that colored earth doesn’t affect the body.