About Pip Seymour Artist Oil Colours

Pip Seymour Artist’s Oil Colours Extra-Fine are made in small batches using precious and unique pigments. The binder is English cold-pressed linseed oil, from a single farm estate and each colour has a unique recipe that provides the maximum colour value for the pigment used.

Prior to tubing, the milled paint is left to rest for around three months. This helps to correct any imbalance in terms of ratio of pigment to oil. The resulting production is reminiscent of hand-milled colours, or machine-ground colours from the early 19th century. In many ways, this production is a return to a simpler formulation for oil colour manufacture, where additives and fillers are kept to the absolute minimum and no extra drying agents are employed (the colours dry according to the action of each pigment when mixed with linseed oil). This range includes the cadmiums and cobalts, metal oxides and synthetic pigments found in most oil colour selections. In opposition to the general trend in the art materials market, we continue to work with special colours such as lapis lazuli and malachite.

For these mineral colours, we choose the best stones and pulverise them according to traditional methods. We deliberately keep the particle size large, to retain depth of colour -– the finer the particle size, the paler the colour becomes. As a consequence the exact shade from one batch of paint to another can change according to the depth of colour and purity of the stones used; in general, the quality of stones is pretty much assured from year to year.

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Earth colours

We also produce a large number of earth shades, many of which are hand-dug, pulverised and washed according to tradition. We try to work with existing quarries in the UK and around Europe.

Although the amount of raw material extracted is small, often the process of choosing veins and bands of colour involves site visits to ensure the best selection of raw earth material.

Once chosen and extracted, the raw lump material is pulverised to around 60 microns, washed and sieved. For some earth pigments, we deliberately leave the ground pigment in a more gritty form, again to preserve the depth of colour, as over grinding at this stage would create a paler tone.

For example, our Honister green slate is made in three distinct shades: pale green grey, dark green and green-violet. The paler shade is a fine powder, the other two being progressively grittier.

We periodically add new earth shades, as and when we can find new supplies.

Included in the range are pure bright raw and burnt sienna from Monte Amiata in Tuscany. We managed to secure a longterm supply of historic production (pre- 1970s) of these original shades. In contrast to modern siennas, these colours were washed and left to dry in the sun and have a soft but brilliant transparency, providing beautiful warm glazing colours.

From the same mountain, we work with a famed Brunello vineyard, who have a vein of terra rosa, a soft red-pink earth that is unmatchable with modern oxides.

We recently produced a selection of red earth oil colours for Cornelissen, inspired by the exhibition on Pompeii at the British Museum. We located small stocks of volcanic red earth pigments from Herculean, Pompeii and further north in Tuscany.

Such one-off projects are of great interest to us: the raw material may be finite but, like a good wine year, a small and precious supply of a particular earth shade can be fantastic for the artist.

An important part of our concept for the oil colour is to use historically important sources for earth pigment: along with the siennas from Tuscany, we also use pigments from the original quarries in Burgundy and Provence in France, green earths from the Dolomites and umbers from Cyprus.

In the UK we produce three colours from one incredible quarry in Oxfordshire. Along with Oxford ochre (a warm, deep yellow), the quarry also yields Davy’s grey (a form of mudstone/slate) and Oxford bluestone, a deep cold dark green earth pigment, completely unique to our paint range.


Christian Furr Roy Ackerman, oil on wooden panel, (18x16cm)
 
I was going for a Rembrandt-esque look with this portrait of a good friend, says Christian Furr.
 
I washed the wooden panel with Furr brown then applied the light colours thickly in the illuminated areas as Rembrandt would have done, lean/dark to thick/light, so his face emerges from the darkness illuminated from a single light source. Furr brown was invaluable to me with this work.
 

Affordability

Seymour Artist’s Oil Colours provide a balanced palette at an affordable price. This line of colours is made in larger batches, using a purified cold pressed linseed oil (from more than one farm) within a formula that creates a rich, smooth paint paste. Drying agents are not used (apart from whites) and the best available pigments are selected to give optimum coverage and colour intensity.

There are 38 colours in Series 1, with a further small group of genuine cadmiums and cobalts at a higher price. This range is available in 40ml and 150ml tubes.

We have found a growing number of students have begun using the 150ml tubes as they represent incredible value for money and a cost-effective way to create large-scale, expansive paintings.

As this range does not contain the level of fillers normally found in volume oil colours, the dried surface has more resonance.

Our oil colours have become firm favourites at Cornelissen’s art store in London. We also think it makes painting and the choosing of colours more interesting for the artist: we all like to be challenged by new colours and materials from time to time.

For supply, please contact:  www.cornelissen.com


John Whittall Red Berries, oil on board, (30x36cm)
 

John Whittall finds that Pip’s colours provide the perfect balance.

They enable me to experiment with colour combinations that up to now have been alien to me. One might say I use them to knock the edge off my usual palette range, ie titanium white, lemon yellow (Honister green slate), cadmium yellow, yellow ochre (oxide yellow), cadmium red (cadmium vermilion), alizarin crimson (carmine lake), burnt sienna, cobalt blue, viridian, ultramarine, raw umber (raw umber greenish). Pip's colours don’t have the usual drying agents, and for me their appeal is that they perform differently straight from the tube

The mixture of colour isn't a calculated procedure but I know I enjoy Pip Seymour colours because they are never too persuasive. Some are gritty, which suits my technique – I'm not a high gloss painter.

The absence of drying oils is a positive bonus and I use Pip Seymour colours to add subtlety to the highly manufactured paints of other brands. Purity in colour isn't announced with a loud blast: the understated joy of Pip's colours, so different from anyone else’s, leaves you being inspired by every new tube of seductive colour.
 


Christian Furr Petit Langres, oil on wooden panel, (23x18cm)
 
For Petit Langres, above, I used Naples yellow deep for this as it captured the particular rich creamy yellow of this cheese so well. I had to capture the cheese before it melted, so worked quickly


I have been using Pip's paints for many years and find them second to none.

Whenever I need advice regarding palettes from history and particular use of colours, it’s to Pip that I turn.

The palette I use today is partly down to Pip's recommendations and I was honoured to have had a brown – Furr brown – named after me.


Christian Furr Thames from Richmond Hill – Winter Morning, oil on canvas, (28x63.5cm)
 
Here I used cobalt blue mixed with nickel lemon to capture the clear sky and its gradient at this time of the morning. Cobalt blue is what Velasquez would refer to as 'smalt', which he would use to tone down his mixtures.
 
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