Wallace and Seymour

There used to be a fine selection of whites - the range has been restricted by the ban on lead white, which I'm attempting to challenge (it would require a change to the REACH regulations on hazardous substances).  So Cremnitz, Flake, Flemish, Stack Lead and other whites will be almost impossible to obtain. A great many professional artists don't use them, didn't use them - so it would be a stretch to call them essential.  But they certainly helped, and provide the strength in the paint film which other whites can't. Otherwise, we're restricted to Titanium, and Zinc.  To take the second first, Zinc Oxide is extremely problematic in oil paint - not in anything else - because research has shown in can cause delamination.  For what it's worth, I would never have used it in base layers anyway, but did sometimes in the top layer; I don't use it at all any more. A lot of work has been done on Titanium White, notably by Michael Harding and Wallace Seymour, to overcome its drawbacks.  Nothing is likely to make it as strong as lead white, sadly.  But MH has introduced a "warm white", which looks promising; and Wallace Seymour have made several whites, including a Flake-type based on Titanium: I've tried it (not yet tried the MH) and it is very stiff in a rather gloopy way, the best explanation I can give it.  It certainly doesn't have that very very white whiteness which makes Titanium hard to control in mixes: but it is a challenge in use at first.  I've got a big fat tube of it, and hope it will suit me. Then you've got a range of whites which most of us won't encounter unless we go to specialist suppliers, including Lithopone (which I like, as a white that doesn't overpower in mixes), and a Lowry White - of which I have a small quantity.  Lithopone (PW5) is Barium Sulfate and Zinc Sulfide (NOT the problematic Zinc Oxide); Lowry White (from Wallace Seymour) is really interesting: PW6, PW6.1, PBk11 - I like it a lot, if that helps at all. There are other whites, but this isn't the place to bang on forever! Summary: For most leisure and many professional painters, Titanium White (PW6) is entirely acceptable - see if you can find a brand which doesn't contain a touch of Zinc Oxide, because some do.  It IS a very cold white, but can be warmed by a touch of Yellow Ochre, Lemon Yellow, or, depending on the palette you're using, Cadmium Red (as in, a touch), or genuine, or Michael Harding, Naples Yellow (other Naples Yellows contain Zinc Oxide); a little bit of Cadmium Yellow Light/Pale and T. White will give you a good simulation of Naples Yellow. So there you have as much information as I can cram into one post without (I hope) inducing coma.  While the quality of our whites is important, what's even more important is what suits us - and that might just as easily be Jackson's two grades of Titanium White, or, for my personal preference, Michael Harding's Titanium White ground in Linseed Oil - if the whole subject just gives you a headache and you want one white, dammit, and none of yer fancy talk: go for that.