Watercolour

The mark of quality, the mark of permanence

Every watercolour artist will have a story to tell about their first boxed set and colours they worked with when starting out. Most began with Winsor & Newton paints, relying on the technical and superior performance of single pigment colour for clean and vibrant mixes, unrivalled transparency and the widest range of deep permanent colours that last for generations. Many have continued to use Professional Watercolour to develop technique and grow into their art, experimenting with landscapes, nature, portraiture, and abstract painting.

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Your top ten watercolour questions answered

In this article, we’ve collated your most popular watercolour questions and answered them all in one handy guide. Bookmark this article for the next time you’re planning to pick up your watercolour paints.

Watercolour through the eyes of the artist: stories behind the sets

Watercolour is often the first foray into painting for anyone who picks up a brush. It is transportable, something you can gift to a very young budding artist, and it never requires more than the basics of a brush, paper and paint.

The permanence of artists’ paints in the 19th century

A lot is expected of artists’ paints: permanence, ease of use, reliability of tone, and capability of modification with both thinners and thickening agents to suit the techniques of individual artists.

Venetian Red

An intense earth red. Unlike light red, which is yellower and Indian Red which is bluer, it is a distinct rich red favoured by Titian and originally sourced from quarries near Venice. Derived from the mineral hematite, variations in earth reds occur according to where the pigment comes from due to there being different concentrations of hematite in soil. Venetian Red is now a Synthetic Iron Oxide Red providing greater consistency of colour and texture. Also known as a caput mortuum.

Terre Verte

A beautiful delicate transparent green seen in frescoes and early Italian painting. Especially used in underpainting flesh tones – it provides cool half-tones which compliment later layers of warm reds and yellows, making the flesh more realistic. When layered and used in underpainting, beautiful greys can be achieved with its complimentary red. Valued over the centuries for its stabile, lightfast quality.

Cobalt Turquiose

Made with titanium dioxide and modern phthalo pigments, Cobalt Turquoise remains vibrant & clean in tints and mixes, creating beautiful greens and violets. It is great for painting a landscape to achieve a range of colour variation in foliage and is equally favoured by modern abstract artists such as Mark Rothko and Brice Marden, it is a colour full of possibility.

Magnesium Brown

A lightfast, opaque, moderately dark, iron zinc oxide with a unique caramel brown colour. Yellower than Burnt Sienna but warmer than an ochre, it provides a beautiful, warm granulation. It is distinct in its texture and shows the beauty of pigment over dyes or stains.

Lemon Yellow Deep

A deep lemon yellow, subtle in tone while also adding texture with its natural granular character to colours such as Manganese Blue and Rose Madder.

Cobalt Violet

A single pigment colour which is naturally super granular, a beautiful purple first discovered in 1859 by Salvétat. It is a semi-transparent and extremely permanent pigment possessing a delicate rose tinting strength.