For me, visiting the Utrecht store on 3rd Ave. in Manhattan was like going to Disneyland. An entire store dedicated to art supplies! Utrecht along with Pearl and other independent icons like David Davis made New York City a mecca for working artists. Those days are gone. Pearl closed and when Utrecht’s founders, Harold and…
Recently, a reader emailed me several questions that I want to share: i am looking for the perfect oil paint and it is not easy to choose and find the one that suits me. it would save me from buying several brands to test. it scares me. I have seen your excellent work on testing…
In the past, I trolled titanium white users–zinc white users too. These whites, inferior as they are, provide the only competition for the champion of oil-paint white, lead white. Actually, it isn’t even a contest; lead white wins easily on every metric that matters: blending, body, and all-around handling. Titanium white is so unnaturally bright…
I am testing the excellent Michael Harding brand Cremitz white. It really is good stuff. Along with Kremer’s Cremitz white, it’s among the best lead whites that I’ve used. Of course, the lead whites from all the manufacturers still providing the all-important paint are excellent. By the last count, there are eight art supply manufacturers…
I am a fan of RGH’s cremnitz white and regularly use it in my paintings, Like their cremnitz white, RGH’s Flemish white is lead-based. Regular readers know that I only use lead-based whites in my oil paintings. Flemish white is made with lead sulfate. There are many ways to make lead paint which is not…
Part of a recent paint buy included a tube of Cranfield’s King’s blue deep, which I’d bought in order to review. The Cranfield brand is new to me and King’s blue is not a palette regular but I like to try new paint brands and colors. Cranfield is a British firm that originally produced printing…
I applied the second and last oil ground to this new 44″ x 60″ canvas. I made the tone by adding a little burnt umber and burnt sienna to the Williamsburg lead-oil ground. I applied the ground with a scrapper as usual. After letting it cure for a few weeks, I’ll prepare a drawing for…
I never use a palette knife on my palette. To mix a tone, I plunge my brush into the paints and use the brush to mix what I need. For example, on this nearly-fresh palette, I dipped my brush into the cobalt blue–the second blue from the bottom right–and used my brush to mix it…