Winsor & Newton ‘Artisan’ Oil Colours

by Murray Ince | Sep 28, 2018 | Informative

My Palette of Landscape Colours

Artisan Colours
There are 40 colours available in the ‘Artisan Water-mixable Oil range, personally I don’t use all of the colours in the range for my landscape and seascape paintings but do have a wider range of colours in the studio for when I’m painting floral, still life and portrait subjects. Above is the range of colours on my normal, working palette. On the palette are the colours with approximately 50% Titanium White added, the tubes appear in the same order as on the palette.

Winsor & Newton’s ‘Artisan’ Oil Mediums

by Murray Ince | Sep 28, 2018 | Informative

‘Winkle Street’ ‘Artisan’ oils on 20” x 16” stretched cotton canvas

Mediums and Techniques
The ‘Artisan’ range of water-mixable mediums is comprehensive allowing for all of the painting techniques associated with traditional oil painting. Artisan oils are made using modified (to accept water molecules) Linseed or Safflower oils, these are available in 75 ml bottles so that the artist can use the ‘fat on lean’ process of painting meaning slightly more oil in each additional layer of paint and for the technique known as ‘glazing’ over painting with thin, oily layers of paint, much like a watercolour wash. In addition to Linseed and Safflower oil Winsor and Newton produce a comprehensive range of water-mixable painting mediums.

Thinner
Artisan oil paint can be thinned using nothing more than water however water tends to evaporate quite rapidly and so the thinned paint thickens quite quickly on the palette, ‘Artisan’ thinner evaporates at a much slower rate thus extending the fluid workability time of the thinned paint. Water can also be combined with the thinner, using water alone tends to change the appearance of the colour mixed whereas the ‘Artisan’ thinner maintains the appearance of the colour.

Painting Medium
Painting medium is stand oil based and as such dries slowly and remains flexible, it is great for aiding the painting of fine detail and “oiling out”, oiling out is the application of oil to an area where the paint has lost its oil to a layer underneath or ”sunk”. I use a soft lint free cloth and apply the medium in a small, circular motion.

Stand Oil
Stand oil is basically a Linseed oil that has been heat treated to lower the oxygen level in the oil which means in effect that it dries more slowly making it ideal for the glazing technique and is also glossier and more transparent.

Fast Drying Medium
The use of the fast drying medium in our colour mixes speeds up the drying time by as much as 50%, this allows additional layers to be worked more speedily whilst thinning the colour, increasing the glossiness and transparency. When painting layers you can use it instead of linseed oil, combine it with water and/or thinner maintaining the ‘fat over lean’ principle.

Impasto Medium
By thoroughly mixing impasto medium into the paint you can maintain tube consistency whilst speeding up drying by as much as 50% and create a heavier texture than with just the paint. For thick impasto build the texture gradually allowing to dry between layers.

Art, Artisan and Me

by Murray Ince | Sep 28, 2018 | Informative

Art and Artisan
Editorial and Featured Paintings By Murray William Cole Ince
Winsor and Newton’s ‘Artisan’ water-mixable oil paint was, for me, it is no exaggeration to say, a life changing discovery. In the early 1990s my wife became asthmatic curtailing my work in traditional oils as the thinning spirits, Distilled spirit of turpentine and White (mineral spirits) would set off an asthma attack. ‘Artisan’ was launched in 1998 and I immediately went and bought a few tubes to see how it differed from the traditional oils that I was used to and to my delight it seemed no different at all! Now having used it for 20 years I can say that ‘Artisan’ oils perform no differently to the traditional oils that I previously used and everything that you can do with traditional oils can be done with ‘Artisan’ the only differences are in favour of ‘Artisan’! You clean brushes and equipment with a little soap and water, you can thin the paint just using water and it has no obnoxious odours or fumes and is far more environmentally friendly than its traditional counterpart.