Handprint

Now and then, I check up on the colours available to us - and have just spent half an hour or so on the excellent website www.handprint.com - the site deals with watercolour paints, but the points made are applicable to oils, and even acrylic, too; it's probably true that oil paint is somewhat less vulnerable to fading than watercolour, although that does depend on so many variables - and there's a well-known oil dominated by blue leaves: it may look avant-garde, but that wasn't the intention at all - what's happened is that the yellow pigment glazed over the blue to make optical green has entirely disappeared.  <div> </div><div>There may be some who have yet to delve into the site, but I recommend it highly: you don't need to get obsessive over lightfastness tests, but for those of us selling (or trying to sell) our work, it ought to be required reading.  Some have said that if a painting lasts their lifetime and that of their customer, they won't complain; well - that's a point of view.  Don't agree with it, but never mind.  However, there are still some pigments sold that WON'T last your lifetime - indeed, they're unlikely to last your hamster's lifetime. </div><div> </div><div>It's a pity that Alizarin Crimson - a lovely pigment, and very useful in colour mixing - isn't lightfast: but then - it isn't.  Some of us still take a chance on it in oil paint, but with great reluctance, I gave it up some time ago; it can fade suddenly, precipitately - and disappear like the yellow glaze in the oil painting.  </div><div> </div><div>When Michael Willcox addressed this issue some years ago, he became intensely unpopular with artists ... but he was right on this, if not on everything.  But don't believe me - go and spend an hour or two at www.handprint.com, conduct your own lightfastness tests, and decide for yourself.</div>