The landscape artist who makes her paint from pearls, crystals and volcanic dust

View image in fullscreen Artist Su Yu-Xin poses for a portrait in her Los Angeles studio in March. Photograph: Thalia Juarez While in art school in London, Su Yu-Xin calculated that most painters used one of five brands of high-end oil paint, and that each brand produced only about 60 colors. "That's really scary," the Slade graduate said. "It's like all the top chefs in the world shop from the same grocery store." Determined not to be limited to the colors available on the market, Su began experimenting with making her own paints, many sourced from natural materials she collected…