Earth Day reflections on our environmental impact with the meditative paintings of Onya McCausland

Today (Wednesday 22 April) being Earth Day, here’s an artist whose work will make you think, exploring our very human impact on the environment – through the material language of paint. Onya McCausland is a contemporary artist whose practice combines studio paintings, wall installations, and collaborative, site-specific projects. Her paintings are stunning and deceptive. On the surface, they present as introspective abstractions – muted ochres, rusts, terracotta and smoky tones that feel almost geological in their stillness.But the meditative appearance of these hues is challenged by the paints’ origin: what appears natural is in fact the residue of ecological disturbance – because, central to these works are her bespoke paints, which transform waste products from industrial mining into luminous, site-specific colour.

Onya McCausland, 50.17225° N, 5.62891° W, 140cm x 150cm, Pigments in oil on linen, 2025

Onya makes her own bespoke paints from waste ochre produced by decommissioned coal mines, working with the Coal Authority as an artist in an unusual creative collaboration between artist and government body. Each year, the UK's Coal Authority oversees water treatment at former mines, generating around 4,000 tonnes of this ochre as a by-product. And so, where others see industrial waste, Onya sees potential for wonder and beauty.

One such project involved the creation of an exterior-grade wood stain made from mine waste ochre and a plant-based bio-resin binder, used as part of an architectural intervention for a former miners’ hospital, Six Bells, in South Wales. Through sustained engagement with local communities, McCausland’s projects demonstrate how waste materials can be re-purposed as active agents in processes of renewal and collective storytelling. Residents of Six Bells were given tins of "Six Bells Red" to paint their own doors and walls.

Onya McCausland, 54.82776° N, 1.31629° W, 140cm x 150cm, Pigments in oil on linen, 2025

Thirty paintings from this series are now to be exhibited in her new solo show, Tailings, at CLOSE Gallery Somerset. From works such as 51.44293° N, 0.26868° E (Bluewater) that delicately bring out the subtle variation within chalk formations to the stark metallic, oxidised brushstrokes of 50.15596° N, 5.67996° W (Geevor) and 51°43 33.56 N 3°07 58.63 W, Tailings is a testament to the power and profundity of McCausland’s oeuvre, each work – as one may infer from the coordinates of each title – a precise document of space, reflection and imagination.  

The title for the show – Tailings – comes from the term used for the waste materials left over after processing ore to extract valuable minerals, consisting of ground rock, water, and processing chemicals. 

OnyaMcCausland, 54°34 07.37 N 0°57 42.87 W, Saltburn BANDS yellow pigment in oil on linen, 40cm x40cm 

A recurring theme throughout the exhibition is the overlap between human and geological time. Through layered surfaces, subtle tonal shifts and expansive monochrome fields, the paintings evoke perspectives that move between aerial and ground-level viewpoints, suggesting both distance and proximity. These shifts in scale and orientation invite viewers to reconsider how landscapes are seen, understood and inhabited, particularly in regions where industrial activity has left lasting environmental and social consequences.

McCausland’s practice is highly collaborative. Each layer of paint embodies memory, a fragment of our landscape at a particular point in time, an aggregate of human and geological processes that undergird our present reality. 

“These pigments and artworks have come into existence thanks to human activity. They're not only beautiful but also highlight the intricate relationship between humans and the way they exploit the local landscape.” Onya McCausland. 

Tailings by Onya McCausland runs 25 April – 30 May 2026 at CLOSE Gallery Somerset. For more information visit closeltd.com