Released with Publication Studio Hudson in collaboration with Toolshed in March 2023, this book builds on my decade-long practice of making watercolor paints from the berries, blossoms, and leaves of the plants who green urban and disturbed habitats. Part field guide and part instruction manual, it is also an ode strengthening human partnerships with weeds. It is accompanied by an online component, Feral Hues on Estuarial Fill.

The book was developed with support from Toolshed, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, and Basilica Hudson’s Hudson as Muse artist residency. Hand-numbered copies from an edition of 100 can be purchased directly from me or from PS Hudson, who have an edition of 40.

To purchase from me, email ellieirons@gmail.com or Venmo me at @ellie-irons and include your mailing address (sliding scale $10.00-$30.00, I will donate 25% of any purchases over $15.00 to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund)

In the book, alongside paintings, drawings, and a prompt for “vegetal attunement,” readers will find a step-by-step guide to making watercolor paints from foraged plant parts, a color chart of the various “feral hues” the process produces, and four limited-edition Risograph printed postcards made by Patrick Kiley of PS Hudson, featuring my Transect Study paintings.

Growing out of a year of fieldwork in the post-industrial riverfront town of current-day Hudson, New York, the book also profiles seven weedy plants I encountered while working there. Ranging from Pokeweed (pocoon/pèkòn/Phytolacca Americana) to Japanese Knotweed (Hǔzhàng/虎杖/Reynoutria japonica) these plants–whether native or migrant–root on “manufactured land” lying in the Mahicanituck/Hudson River’s once and future flood plain. Short essays on the naturalcultural lives of each plant are accompanied by paint swatches, photographs, and identification and harvesting tips.