JESSYJO DARLING
Earth Pigment Artist
b. Australia
Lives and Works in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Jessyjo Darling is an Australian-born artist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and co-founder of Beals & Darling gallery on Canyon Road. She holds a Bachelor of Design from the Whitehouse Institute of Design in Melbourne, Australia, and has lived and worked across Australia and the United States. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private collections across the United States, Australia and beyond.
Working with hand-gathered earth pigments, charcoal, stone and mineral, Darling creates abstract paintings that explore the relationship between place, memory and belonging. Her process begins in the landscape, where she gathers materials whose natural color, texture and geological history become both the medium and subject of the work.
Darling’s background in design informs the spatial sensitivity and restraint of her compositions, while her material practice is rooted in observation, research and an ongoing fascination with the stories held within the land. Through transforming gathered earth into paint, each work becomes a physical record of place, carrying something of its geography, history and memory onto the canvas.
AVAILABLE WORKS
48 x 48
Bloom 4 is created with Australian red earth and Atlantasite, bringing together the deep mineral tones of the Australian landscape with the natural greens of stone. Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Blooming series, the work explores growth, transformation and the organic forms that emerge when natural pigments are allowed to move and interact across the canvas.
The materials bloom into one another, creating soft, fluid forms that feel simultaneously botanical and geological; a study of the earth as both material and subject.
36 × 48
Horizon 1 is painted with New Mexico earth pigments, layering warm ochres, rust and smoky browns beneath a pale, open sky. Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Horizons series, the work explores the quiet meeting of land and atmosphere, drawing the eye towards a distant ridge.
Below the horizon, translucent washes and darker mineral passages suggest shifting terrain, weathered stone and shadows moving across the earth. The pigments settle into soft bands of colour, creating a landscape that feels both expansive and intimate.
60 × 60
Atmosphere 5 unfolds in soft washes of pale ochre, blush and cream, with translucent forms drifting across a luminous ground. Subtle layers overlap and dissolve, suggesting light passing through cloud or dust suspended in warm air.
Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Atmosphere series, the work explores the fleeting space between presence and disappearance. Delicate traces of pigment emerge slowly, creating a quiet sense of movement, warmth and openness.
30 × 40
Bloom V is created with Tasmanian Atlantisite, its soft mineral greens unfolding across a warm cream ground. Translucent washes gather into rounded, petal-like forms, with fine particles of pigment tracing their edges and settling into deeper olive tones.
Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Blooming series, the work explores the delicate forms that emerge as natural pigments move and settle. A loose stem and curling bud suggest a flower still becoming, capturing the quiet movement between growth and bloom.
18 × 24
Horizon 7 is painted with New Mexico earth pigments, layering smoky greys and warm umber beneath a pale cream sky. Fine bands of terracotta and golden ochre trace the distant horizon, bringing warmth to the subdued landscape.
Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Horizons series, the work explores the quiet expanse between earth and sky. Granular textures and flowing washes suggest weathered terrain, while darker passages soften into open areas of light—a landscape shaped by movement, settling and time.
48 × 48
Atmosphere 3 is painted with New Mexico earth pigments, bringing together smoky greys, deep mineral tones and warm ochres in sweeping, cloud-like forms. Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Atmosphere series, the work explores the shifting relationship between earth, air and light.
The pigments gather into dark, enveloping shapes before dissolving into translucent washes, suggesting weather moving across a landscape. Soft edges and traces of settling minerals reveal the movement of water across the canvas; earth taking on the fleeting qualities of atmosphere.
18 × 24
Horizon 6 is painted with New Mexico earth pigments, bringing together warm terracotta, golden ochre and charcoal grey beneath a pale, spacious sky. Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Horizons series, the work evokes open terrain, where a distant ridge gives way to shifting bands of colour and shadow.
Soft washes meet textured mineral passages, suggesting weathered ground, dry riverbeds and traces of erosion. Cream and white move between the darker forms, opening quiet spaces within the landscape and drawing the eye towards the horizon.
48 × 60
Atmosphere 1 is painted with New Mexico earth pigments, bringing together warm ochres, smoky greys and deep mineral tones. Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Atmosphere series, the work explores the movement of weather and light through materials gathered from the landscape itself.
The pigments drift into one another, forming dark, sweeping shapes that dissolve into soft, translucent washes. Both geological and cloud-like, these forms evoke the shifting skies of New Mexico; a study of earth becoming atmosphere.
48 × 60
Blooming 1 is created with Australian quartz, Tasmanian Atlantisite, Australian red earth, California mussel shell and ochre, and New Mexico sandstone. Bringing together materials from distant landscapes, the work unfolds in warm terracotta and golden tones, softened by pale lavender, cream and touches of mineral green.
Part of Jessyjo Darling’s Blooming series, the painting explores growth and transformation through fluid, petal-like forms. Translucent layers curl around deeper pools of pigment, suggesting a flower opening—a meeting of botanical movement and the earth from which its colours are made.