Watercolor Paint

Paint is paint. Right? Don't I just WISH that is true!! Unfortunately, it's nowhere near that easy.

I started with Winsor & Newton Cotman water colors. I had a set from long ago. I also had some old Grumbacher Academy water colors. Unfortunately, those tubes of paint all dried up! All but one of them had dried in the past ten years or so. Ouch. Not a good thing. You want the watercolor to remain moist regardless of how long they are left. The caps were on tight. So, they should not have dried. But they did.

As I started painting, I found that the Cotman water colors tended to be a little chalky and did not blend well. I finally decided that I should invest in "artist quality" watercolor paints.

After many, many hours of research, I settled on M. Graham Watercolors. I purchased some forty-five colors (or so). The interesting thing about the M. Graham watercolor paints is that they use the time-honored binding medium of pure gum arabic and natural blackberry honey. It appears that the honey allows the paint to remain moist much longer. It tends to attract moisture from the air. As the M. Graham website notes:

...honey contributes to moistness for smooth, easily controlled applications, increased pigment concentrations and freedom from reliance on preservatives.  Because of the honey medium, our color resists hardening on the palette, or in the tube.  It dilutes easily, often after months of disuse.

And that's quite true. I find it is much more pliable. It applies very smoothly and allows me to blend it much more readily. The first painting that I did with this paint was the Aspens in Vail painting. As you can see, the colors are much more vibrant than in earlier paintings. And it has a smoother feel with the various blends of color. I've been very pleased with this paint.