As a trainee of Trashi Yangtse Zorig Chusum, the institute for traditional arts and crafts in eastern Bhutan in 2013, Penjor developed passion to learn and research on use of natural pigments for paintings. He embarked on an exciting venture to create dyes using natural pigments from organic sources like plants and trees and founded the Green Pigment Arts. The small grants program of the Bhutan Foundation supported Penjor to carry out extensive research over three years and successfully experimented the production and use of natural colors for painting. His paintings are exquisite and different from the loud acrylic colors that have dominated the market these days and has gone on to exhibit his work during Bhutan’s Mountain Echoes Literary Festival in 2018 on the theme ‘Colors of Nature’ and also continues to share his passion with youth through periodic workshops and extend platform for on-the-job training opportunities to trainees from institutes of traditional arts and crafts in Bhutan. Penjor humbly puts his groundbreaking efforts as “a service to revive the traditional way of painting in Bhutan”.
“It is possible to use pigment from our own motherland, and paint is much richer and invaluable with natural pigments.” – Penjor
