Who tell me more about Cotman watercolour lightfastness?

Hello, Pat. I posted a reply earlier, but it disappeared somewhere. I wrote to say that I used Cotman for many years, and none of my old paintings have shown any sign of lack of lightfastness. None have faded at all. I now use Artist's quality, as I find I can get depth of colour in one wash very easily, and also I found that Cotman used to get 'muddy' quite easily. And since I have a tendency to overwork my colours, Artist's quality keeps me out of trouble, and less of my attempts end up in the bin! Best Wishes Ann

The earth colours are fine. The cadmium substitutes somewhat less so in my limited experience - limited because I use very few cadmium colours, and only rarely, in watercolour. As in every other brand and every other paint, I would avoid Alizarin Crimson UNLESS it's a Hue colour - the real thing fades, as does conventionally-made Rose Madder. But I haven't used Cotman colours for quite a while, and it may be they've replaced the fugitive madders by now: I wish everyone did. What I used to do, when I was even poorer than I am now (you can send food parcels,you know: or just money: money's good....) was use Cotman paints for the earth colours, and Ultramarine (which was pretty good), and genuine Cadmium Red and Yellow when I needed them. These days, because I have a far more limited palette in watercolour than in other media, I do use all artists' quality colours. The lad you want here though is Steve Cronin, who demonstrates his techniques on YouTube, or of course Alan Owen, who does the same with his very different approach. I know Steve uses Cotman colours always - he also uses Alizarin by the way, whether it's the authentic pigment or Permanent Alizarin I don't know. Both respond to information requests.

I use a hake now and then - not the Ron Ranson ones, as it happens. The secret is to keep the brush just damp - it's uncontrollable when saturated, and as Syd says, when it gets too dry the hairs separate: so you end up painting with a forked beard. The best way to use it is to saturate it first, then squeeze out the water - you get a feel for how much to squeeze out, or as it were wipe out on the rim of your water-pot. Some people love it - I'm rather fond of it myself; some never, ever get the hang of it. Ron Ranson himself is still working, and will be around about your age now, Syd - there are one or two videos of him on YouTube: watching him is a bit like watching a magician; you see what he does, but working out how he does it is something else again.