Wender·Vista
Painted Hills color is paleosol stratigraphy: red iron, yellow leaf litter, black manganese
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileOregon
in the John Day country, east of Mitchell

Painted Hills color is paleosol stratigraphy: red iron, yellow leaf litter, black manganese

— — color that is the soil itself, layered.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“The bands of the Painted Hills are not paint. They are paleosols, ancient soil horizons stacked on top of each other across millions of years. The red comes from iron oxide left when the climate ran warm and wet. The yellow is leaf litter and goethite from cooler, swampier intervals. The black is manganese and lignite from standing water. Read from base to crest, the hills are a climate record. from the studio

from the studio
Painted Hills color is paleosol stratigraphy: red iron, yellow leaf litter, black manganese
— bring it home

Painted Hills color is paleosol stratigraphy: red iron, yellow leaf litter, black manganese, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Painted Hills color is paleosol stratigraphy: red iron, yellow leaf litter, black manganese

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

The Painted Hills Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument sits about 9 miles northwest of Mitchell in Wheeler County, Oregon. The unit covers roughly 3,100 acres on the John Day River drainage at 2,200 feet elevation. The hills expose the lower John Day Formation, deposited between about 39 and 18 million years ago. The monument is administered by the National Park Service and split across three units, Painted Hills, Sheep Rock, and Clarno, each accessible by paved road from US 26 or Oregon Route 19.

— the colour

The bands are paleosols, ancient soil horizons preserved in sequence. Red layers are oxidized iron, formed when the climate ran warm and seasonally wet enough to weather iron-bearing volcanic ash into hematite. Yellow layers are goethite and preserved organic matter from cooler, more humid intervals with heavy leaf fall. Black bands are manganese oxides and lignite, marking ponds or boggy ground where standing water concentrated those minerals. Each stripe is a former land surface that breathed in one climate, then was buried under the next ash fall.

— the year

The Painted Hills record the Eocene-Oligocene transition between roughly 39 and 30 million years ago, the interval when Earth shifted from a hothouse climate into the first long cooling that produced Antarctic ice. Fossils preserved in the same beds, recovered nearby by Park Service paleontologists, include early horses, oreodonts, and the leaves of subtropical hardwoods that no longer grow in Oregon. The hills are not a snapshot but a slow movie, each band a chapter of climate written into the dirt.

— where
United States · Wheeler County, Oregon
— within
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
— elevation
670 m · 2,200 ft
— position
44.6533° N · 120.2697° W
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1 km S
Painted Cove Trail
boardwalk loop
14 km E
Mitchell
town
70 km E
Sheep Rock Unit
fossil unit
75 km NW
Clarno Unit
fossil unit
N
Painted Hills color is paleosol stratigraphy: red iron, yellow leaf litter, black manganese
Painted Cove Trail
Mitchell
Sheep Rock Unit
Clarno Unit
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Painted Hills color is paleosol stratigraphy: red iron, yellow leaf litter, black manganese — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Paleosols, ancient soil horizons preserved in sequence. Red bands are oxidized iron, yellow bands are goethite and leaf litter, and black bands are manganese oxides and lignite formed in standing water.

The exposed strata belong to the lower John Day Formation, deposited between roughly 39 and 18 million years ago, spanning the Eocene-Oligocene transition. The most colorful bands fall between 33 and 30 million years old.

Each band formed under a different climate. Warm wet intervals oxidized iron into red hematite. Cooler humid intervals built up yellow goethite and organic matter. Ponds and boggy ground concentrated black manganese and lignite.

Both. Iron and manganese minerals supply the strongest reds and blacks. Plant material adds organic carbon and goethite to the yellow bands. The hills are soils, so the chemistry is whatever weathered into that soil.

In Wheeler County, Oregon, about 9 miles northwest of Mitchell, off US 26. The unit is one of three in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, three and a half hours east of Portland.

After rain and in low light. The bands deepen when the claystone is damp, and sunrise or the last hour before sunset gives the strongest saturation. Midday flattens the contrast and washes the reds.

Yes. Park Service paleontologists have recovered early horses, oreodonts, and subtropical leaf fossils from the John Day Formation. Most fossil work happens in the Sheep Rock Unit. Fossils may not be collected anywhere in the monument.

— about the piece in your home

Yes. The Painted Hills are a teaching landscape for paleosol stratigraphy and the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition. A Medium or Large with a handwritten note from the studio reads as a piece of working geology.

The brick reds, butter yellows, and deep iron blacks read well in Desert Modern, Santa Fe, and Mid-century rooms. The tile also holds its own against warm minimalist plaster and oak.

Yes. Oxide red, ochre, and umber are central to current warm-neutral and Quiet Luxury palettes. The tile carries real geological color, which gives it depth those palettes often lack from generic prints.

A single Large reads well above a standard sofa or console. For more presence, a 4-tile Mural fills the wall above a console; a 9-tile Mural anchors a longer sofa or fireplace.

Yes. Choose the Dura Satin or Matte finish for humid rooms and vertical installations. Both are scratch-resistant and clean with a microfibre cloth. The Glossy finish is better suited to framed wall placements.

A soft microfibre cloth and water are enough. Avoid abrasive pads and ammonia-based cleaners. The colour lives in the ceramic surface beneath a thin protective finish and will not lift with normal cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted by Reid Wender, the studio's curator, in the same stained-glass and alcohol-ink visual language. There is no licensing and no third-party reproduction.

— if this one stayed with you

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