Meg Jorgenson Creates Serene Landscapes with Natural, Homemade Pigments.

Artist Meg Jorgenson’s landscape paintings embody the natural world that envelops the city of Los Angeles.

After almost a decade in the fashion industry, Meg balances her vintage clothing line, Le Gray Vintage, with her budding art career. While her creative process unfolds on the sidewalks of the city, and new landscapes, she invites us inside her Pasadena studio where she creates her own pigments from gathered materials.

While the pandemic gave the Los Angeles based artist, Meg Jorgenson, more space to focus on her painting, transitioning into full-time is still a work in progress for the earth-artist.

“It is still an incredibly hard profession to keep consistent. In addition to art commissions I have a vintage clothing company called Le Gray Vintage, which is curated vintage that I've hand painted, dyed or mended into new pieces of wearable art. I still work part time while I keep chiseling away at my art career.”

Until starting her vintage line several years ago, Meg spent eight years of her adult career in the fashion industry. Her experience as a textile designer has also helped inform her painting practice.

“Concept design is a huge part of the fashion industry. People like a story or type of mood to feel connected to. I think I've always been a natural at trend forecasting; choosing colour palettes and coming up with unique designs for a collection. This definitely translates to how I create my work as an artist. I become very focused on a style when creating new work and am primarily moved by colours, their relationship to one another and the way my pieces look as a whole.”

Since her childhood, she has found amusement and inspiration in the dirt. It wasn’t much of a surprise to Meg that her career would evolve in a way that would allow her to rediscover the little joys that we often leave behind as a child.

“About 5 years ago I was at a used book shop looking through the dollar section and I became drawn to one titled "The Natural Plaster Book." On the cover was a clay coloured adobe home. I've always loved adobes so I paged through it to the only section that had coloured photographs. Immediately I felt that childhood joy come over me. The photos of pigmented clay buckets and plaster swatches on the wall was such a good feeling I eagerly wanted to know more. I spent hours researching plasters, pigments and clays. On hikes I gave more attention to soil and started to collect what I thought could be used in art.”

Meg starts her paintings well before she comes to the canvas part. One of the first stages are collecting her materials. She then hammers her forage using a mortar and pestle, mixing the earth into pastes or washes back in her studio.

“My process is mindfully simple. Go out in nature and notice everything about the landscape. Usually I end up finding an element I didn't know I was looking for. Sometimes what I collect isn't always a physical earth element. Sometimes it's the colour palette of a place or the way the rocks look against a sagebrush. I've started to map out the places I forage but most often I like going into new landscapes to see what I can find.”

While it’s evident that much of her artistry reflected in her landscapes come from the surrounding natural features of her home state of California, her inspiration isn’t confined solely to the land.

“There's quite a bit of inspiration in LA that doesn't necessarily come from nature - peeling walls, the vibrant flora in peoples yards, sidewalks with vein like cracks, an arroyo sunset or scattered shadows. Everything that is a natural earth element in my work has been collected out of state /country or about 45minutes- 2 hours away from the city. I value getting away from the fast moving energy of the city to connect more presently to the earth. It's very important for me to feel immersed in a beautiful landscape to be able to focus and fully get lost in wonderment. The longer I'm gone, the better; as it is so vitalising for my body and mind.”

Since finishing her body of work , Terra Incognita, which captures the relationship between soil and soul, Meg has been experimenting with gentler textures.

“Lately I've been really loving making clay/ pigment dyes that has more of an ethereal watercolour experience. It's a step away from the dense texture I typically have in my work but it still has some sprinkled minerals; almost a bit like the sea leaving the tide line.”

Her collection of tapestries, Terra Incognita, launches on September 10th at Atelier Folk in Lyon, France. You can soon shop her collection here.

To discover more of Meg’s works, follow her on instagram.