NEW YORK, NY.- St. Armand Ventures with Sergio Fernandez de Cordova and Jonathan R. Stein in collaboration with curcioprojects and Mayson Gallery are excited to present artist Fareen Butt’s unique series of crushed gems and semi precious stone “paintings” entitled MIRAGE MOUNTAINSCAPES: Landscapes of Creation. Dominique Nahas, well known writer, curator and educator, wrote an essay to accompany the works. Not your typical oil or acrylic paintings, the entire medium used is a combination of crushed gold, silver, sapphires, rubies, onyx and rare geological minerals such as witherite (phosphorescent mineral) or muonionalusta (mineral from a meteor), with additional precious metal-based pigments. The technique is derived from a synthesis of centuries old Japanese Nihonga, Persian and Hindostani gemstone painting while executed in the Pointillism style of Seuart and of contemporaries like Pousette-