Winsor & Newton change watercolour paint tubes - again!

A lot of artists will be very pleased that Winsor & Newton have listened to all the complaints about the design of the new tubes for professional water colour paints - and have changed them - again!

There's nothing on the website as yet - and I can't find a press release but the announcement is on the W&N Facebook Page (on 16th September) about their plans to change the tubes.

No announcement as yet as to when you will find them at your preferred supplier.

Below you can see the old 'new' tube on the left and the revised 'new' tube on the right.

Winsor & Newton Professional Water Colour - another change of tube

(image from W&N on Facebook www.facebook.com/WinsorNewton)

The main changes are:

• Name of the colour: this is now much more obvious and much easier to read at the cap end due to the improvement in contrast between the text and the background. It's still in three languages as before - 
• Actual Colour Swatch: much larger and goes from being a small brush stroke to being a much obvious block of colour at the cap end
• W & N name and logo: moves down the tube so that all the core information is at the top. Slight redesign of text and more prominence for the griffin logo.

I think the changes made were much needed and a major improvement which I'm sure will be welcomed by very many artists who use W&N watercolours.

They may also get back those artists who decided to stop using W&N paints after they found they couldn't tell which tube they were picking up.

 With any luck W&N will eventually realise that:

• quite a lot of artists would rather like to have the white matte background back as well. I've yet to find an artist who actually likes the shiny metal tube. Shiny when it comes to reading is 'bad news'.  As soon as the new tubes came out, one professional artist I know made a point of showing me how impossible it was to read any text on the tube under a bright light.
• addressing the change in quality concerns are ALSO important. 

When I interview botanical artists who paint in watercolour at the RHS Botanical Art Show II always make a point of asking them which paint their prefer. It was the case for while that almost all used to say Winsor & Newton. However in the last 2-3 years, as they have replaced their 'old' tubes of Winsor and Newton Water Colour Paints with the new paints, I'm now hearing that people experienced disatisfaction with the quality of paint performance and are now also trying other brands to get the quality they require.

Winsor & Newton and the Manufacture of Water Colour Paints

The Winsor & Newton Paint Factory in Whitefriars Avenue, Harrow - which opened in 1937 and used to make all the watercolour paints - closed in 2011 after ColArt (who own W&N as well as a number of other famous brands) moved paint production to the Lefranc & Bourgeois factory in France.

(Do NOT be misled by this video of the old Wealdstone factory uploaded to YouTube in 2012 AFTER the factory closed)

Changes in paint were noticed by both retailers and artists after this. 

It's not entirely clear where watercolour paint is now made - the website is very curiously silent on the matter. However the ColArt website indicates that the company has two art material plants in China.

It's all very curious in an age when most of W&N's main competitors in quality watercolour production now make a virtue of how and where they manufacture. (e.g. Daniel Smith; M. Graham)

I don't think people mind the location of manufacturing changing.
What they do mind is when the quality of the manufacture changes.

Ampersand Panels reach the UK - at long last!

Virtually the complete range of Ampersand panels are now available in the UK - from Jackson's Art Supplies.  

They are the business!  There are surfaces for every type of art medium (see below) and some work work well with more than one media.

These are the ones which are now going to be available in the UK:

• Aquabord - for watercolour. Check out 
• Painting in Watercolor: An Exercise using Aquabord™ with Karen Vernon
• Aquabord 2.0 Revisited
• Artist Panel - which comes in three different surfaces: Canvas, Basswood and Smooth
• Claybord - for ink and egg tempera (and a variety of other media). Check out 
• Graphic Media: Pen and Ink on Claybord™ and 
• Claybord used as Scratchboard
• Acrylic Painting on Claybord by Rock Newcomb
• Encausticbord - a new product for use with hot wax
• Gessobord - for those who like their boards with gesso already applied
• Pastelbord - for artists working in dry media who like a sanded surface eg pastel and coloured pencil artists. Check out 
• Innovative Pastel Methods on Pastelbord
• Scratchbord - for those who like to scratch at the surface to produce an image

I've imported Pastelbord in the past from the USA. It's a great surface to work on and I love the fact you can prder it in different sizes and colours. However what is so very impressive is the rigidity of the board and the fact it does not warp in any way and they can be framed without glass so long as the surface is robust (eg oil and acrylics) or sealed with a varnish (e.g. watercolour and coloured pencils).  Plus all the boards are eco-friendly and safe for artists to use.

For your further information on the Ampersand website there is

• a great FAQs page
• plus a Technical page gives you a summary of what art media works with which board. Just in case you miss it, this is their summary of how to choose the best board for the media you prefer to use
• plus the AmpersandArtsSupply Blog for features on what artists have produced using the different panels and lots of useful tips eg Resources for Framing Panels

Media	Product	Discussion
ACRYLICS	Claybord Gessobord Pastelbord	We highly recommend using thin washes of acrylics on Claybord. Or, try Gessobord for a less absorbent panel or Pastelbord for a surface with more texture and a toned ground.
AIRBRUSH	Claybord	Claybord is ideal for airbrush.
CALLIGRAPHY	Claybord	Ampersand recommends Claybord with this medium.
CASEIN	Claybord Gessobord	Claybord and Gessbord are both appropriate for use with casein.
EGG TEMPERA	Claybord	Use egg tempera on Claybord. Compare with panels you are preparing yourself.
ENCAUSTIC	Encausticbord	Encausticbord is made for the unique demands of encaustic painting.
GOUACHE	Aquabord	We recommend Aquabord for use with gouache.
GRAPHITE AND COLORED PENCILS	Claybord	Use graphite and colored pencils withClaybord.
INKS, INDIA INK, COLORED INKS	Claybord Scratchbord	We recommend Claybord with inks because they can be easily erased and manipulated.
MARKERS	Claybord	Use Claybord with markers and frame without glass.
OILS AND OIL STICKS	Claybord Gessobord	We recommend Gessobord for use with oils. Claybord may also be used but is very absorbent..
PASTELS	Pastelbord	We recommend Pastelbord for working with all types of pastels.
SCRATCHBOARD	Scratchbord	Use Scratchbord as a professional alternative to scratchboard paper.
WATERCOLORS	Aquabord	Use Aquabord, similar to cold press paper, for very wet watercolor washes.

 Summary of how different media work with Ampersand Products

Do also:

• read this blog post on the Jackson's Art Blog - Ampersand Painting Panels are Extraordinary Surfaces for Your Art - which explains all the different surfaces in detail.
• check out the new Ampersand page on the Jacksons website

Ampersand Panels are  hugely impressive - and I'm sure a lot of artists are going to want to try them for themselves.

NOTE: A more limited range of Ampersand Panels are also available from Ken Bromley Art Supplies.

QoR - a new watercolour paint

Yesterday I updated my website The Best Watercolour Paint for Artists and included a new section about a new artists' watercolour paint which becomes available in the USA next month.

branding on the new dedicated QoR website

QoR WaterColor paint is produced by Golden who are well known for their acrylic paints.

The new section devoted to this paint includes links to:

• the new dedicated website
• other information about the new paint made available by Golden
• reviews and comments on the new paint by artists (eg Cathy Johnson) who have been provided with samples

Initial indications are that Golden's experience in acrylics is maybe also obvious in the formulation of this new paint. It'll be interesting to see what those painting traditional watercolours think of it.

RECOMMENDATION: I suggest people try one of the six colour trial pack of colours in the first instance to see whether they like how this new paint behaves.

Please report your experience of this new paint after you get your hands on it wherever is best for you. You can include a comment on this post if you like.

I expect that the website will undoubtedly expand and there will more information about availability in terms of distribution to art stories and online retailers in different countries in the near future.  My experience of such things is that roll-out might be somewhat slow with a focus on the USA only in the short-term. I'll update my website as and when new information becomes available. I won't be including sites which merely repeat a press release.

The price of paint

Jackson's Art Pricewatch Scheme is the sort of marketing effort by art supplies companies which impresses me. 

Jackson's Art website page for the Pricewatch Scheme

Pricewatch Scheme

Our dedicated team of price watchers will constantly check our online competitor’s prices for the most popular branded art materials so that we can guarantee that the lowest prices can always be found at Jacksonsart.com

I'm a committed buyer of goods from John Lewis and one of the reasons I do is because they promise to match the price of the same goods on sale somewhere else so that they always offer the lowest price on normal (ie not clearance) stock.

A commitment from art supplies companies to introduce a price watch comparison service has been long overdue.

The Jacksons scheme is not perfect.  They've picked popular products and very reasonably have matched it against "competitor websites chosen on the first search results for the term ‘art supplies’ on Google.co.uk"

Which means it doesn't cover every product and it doesn't cover every competitor - but it's a start.

It could also mean that art supplies companies start to look very carefully at the price they're charging and introduce a bit more competition into the marketplace.

However, one might be forgiven for not being aware that the system actually exists.  They don't exactly shout about it on the front page of their website!

In fact, it's new and if I hadn't read their 24th January blog post Price Watch scheme I wouldn't have known anything about it.

To my mind, the quality of this scheme will depend on reliable reporting and updating of prices across the board. I could imagine other art suppliers becoming very annoyed and even litigious if their prices are misrepresented in anyway - that's if the Trading Standards people don't get there first!

My conclusion is that it's good to see somebody trying this approach - let's see how it works in practice before arriving at any conclusions about the scheme as a whole.

Cost of shipping

My normal caution to individual artists when comparing prices for art materials is 'ALWAYS look at the cost of shipping' because of the scope for suppliers to balance losses on cutprice goods with premiums on shipping costs.  I've certainly spotted suppliers in the past who have operated according to this strategy.

In this instance I note Jackson's Shipping Information indicates all shipping - at UK standard postage rates - is free once you've topped £39.  The usual sort of premiums apply to the Islands and Ireland.

Arches Huile Oil Paper, Paper Rolls and Paper Pads - reviews and prices

Arches Oil Paper Pad (140 lb x 12 sheets)

Below you can find

• a video by Professor Steve Levin and Canson about the Arches® Oil paper: A new paper for oil painting
• links to reviews of the Oil Paper and Oil Paper Pads introduced by Arches.
• details of suppliers and the prices they've got for the different types of Arches oil paper on their websites as of today's post. It includes both UK (£sterling) and USA ($American) so be careful which one you're looking at

Noted characteristics of the paper are:

• 100% cotton paper - thus much lighter than all normal supports for plein air painting
• paper is deckle edged 
• NOT-type surface 
• range of alternative sizes - from pads to paper to rolls
• ready to use

Comments about performance include

• eliminates the need for preparation
• easy to cut to different sizes
• easily rolled for transport
• strong paper - does not degrade when scrubbed
• capable of taking oil paint without medium or thinners; paint and pigment stay on the surface of the paper and do not sink into the paper - hence no need to prime with gesso
• can take a lot of solvent - which doesn't leak through paper or under tape - plus paper does not buckle when wet
• absorbent - but views as to how absorbent it is very much depend on what people usually paint on; experience seems to be generally similar to painting on primed canvas
• paint takes the same time to dry as other surfaces
• possible to combine oil paint with other drawing media
• oil paper pads provide a backing which means no need for a board to paint on 'en plein air'
• great for oil sketches
• needs to be framed under glass (that's because framing relates to the nature of the support as much as the media used)

Jerry's Artarama provides an instruction sheet - which includes guidance on how to frame

Reviews of Arches Huile Oil Painting Pads

• This is a link to a review of the oil paper pads by Haidee-Jo Summers for The Artist
• This is a review by artist Ian Price who did a 2hr Oil sketch portrait on Arches Huile paper
• This is a forum discussion on Wet Canvas about the new oil painting paper
• Other reviews can be found on art supplier sites - links to which are contained in the table below

Suppliers

These are the art supplies people who have it in stock - and the prices they're charging

	PADS 9 inches x 12inches	PADS 12 inches x 16 inches	PAPER 22 inches x 30 inches 1.3 x 9.15 metres	PAPER 51 inches x 10 yards	No. of reviews on site
UK
Ken Bromley Art Supplies	£11.05	£17.45			4 reviews
Heaton Cooper	£13.50	£20.50
Jackson’s Art Supplies	£11.10	£17.50	£5.10	£111.00	4 reviews
USA
Dick Blick - Arches Oil Paper				$156.65	rated 4.7 (3 reviews)
Dick Blick - Arches Oil Paper Pads	$9.77	$17.19			rated 5.0 (3 reviews)
Jerry’s Artarama	$12.31	$21.58	(pack of 10 sheets) $74.06	$201.35
The Paint Spot	$19.16	$23.96

Remember to check out the cost of shipping goods to you. (Not included above as it depends where you live and how big your order is)

The Top Five Artists' Watercolour Paints in 2013

Personal preferences were expressed in the product review poll "Which are the best artist-quality watercolour paints? (2012 / 13)" on my website Which is the best brand of watercolour paint for artists?

The chart below records the results of 360 responses.

Derived from
Which are the best artist-quality
watercolour paints? (2012 / 13)

The TOP FIVE WATERCOLOUR PAINTS IN 2013 are:

1. Winsor & Newton - 27%
2. M. Graham Watercolour Paints - 11%
3. Daniel Smith Watercolor Paints - 10%
4. Fine Schminke Horadam Aquarell - 9%
5. Sennelier Aquarelle Extra - 8%

It's basically Winsor & Newton way out in front and then four brands - two American and two European - bringing in the next significant group of artist grade paints.

Those who are unfamiliar with M. Graham Watercolor Paints may be surprised they came second. However you should note:

• Reviews of these paints generally provide high praise for the quality, saturation and lightfastness
• 95% of those buying this paint from Dick Blicks would recommend them to a friend.
• The Wilcox Guide to the Finest Watercolours gave high ratings to these paints across the watercolour range.

Below that most paints got little or no support of significance - although there is a good spread of those that did get votes

The chart below reflects the paints in the poll in alphabetical order - and indicates the percentage of the vote each attracted.

The ranking of different brands of paint - in percentage order - follows the chart

Ranking of Watercolour Paints

This is the final ranking for the 2012-13 Poll to identify

• 27% - Winsor and Newton Artists Watercolours 
• 11% - M. Graham Watercolor Paints
• 10% - Daniel Smith Watercolor Paints 
• 9% - Fine Schminke Horadam Aquarell
• 8% - Sennelier Aquarelle Extra
• 6% - Holbein Artists Watercolor
• 3% - Royal Talens
• Rembrandt
• St. Petersburg Watercolors
• 2%
• Daler Rowney Artists Watercolours 
• Kremer Pigmente Watercolors
• 1% 
• Da Vinci
• Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolor Paints
• Grumbacher Watercolor - Finest
• Lukas Aquarell
• Maimeri Blu
• Mijello Mission Gold Watercolors
• Royal Talens - Van Gogh
• Shin Han Premium Watercolors

The following paints failed to get a vote:

• Art Spectrum Artists Watercolours
• Blockx Extra Fine Watercolors
• Holbein Irodori Antique Watercolor
• Old Holland Classic Watercolours
• Pebeo Fragonard Extra-Fine Artists' Watercolors
• Robert Doak's Concentrated Watercolors
• Stephen Quiller Watercolors
• Utrecht Artists' Watercolors

I'll be posting a new Poll for 2014 in the next few days.