Beam Paints draws on my early educations in Indigenous pigment and expands it to encompass all paint traditions. Beam explained, “I was raised by my artist parents, Carl Beam and Ann Beam, and was taught from a young age how to harvest hematite pigment in the LaCloche mountain range near our home in M’Chigeeng First Nation. “Beam Paints is the result of a multi-generation love of pigment, paint, colour and innovation,” says a Beam Paints brochure. “I work with Corbiere Lumber which makes all the wood pallets for the paints.” “I started the business in 2017 and things got really busy for us in 2018,” continued Ms. “All the paint colours have honey, wildcrafted tree sap, and high-quality pigments.” “I learned how to collect pigments and make paint this way from my dad,” said Ms. Her late father Carl Beam made history in 1986 when his work was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada, the first for a contemporary First Nations artist, and paved the way for generations of First Nations artists after him. Her parents, Carl and Ann Beam, were both full-time artists. Traditional Western made paints are very plastic and disposable. Beam strives to use healthy, sustainable ingredients in her paints, like honey from the land itself and her paints exceed Health Canada safety requirement by three times. And in the Chatelaine Magazine, there is also a picture of the Beam Paints palette with the caption, “swap basic paints for a small-batch alternative made from Manitoulin honey, wildcrafted tree sap and high-quality pigments.”

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