Old Harry Rocks, Dorset, a studio painting reference my plein air sketchbooks, Wallace Seymour oil paints, Belle Arti canvas/MDF board, (40 x 50cm)
Alan Bickley reviews Wallace Seymour Artists' Oil Colours - Extra Fine.
I was delighted to have been asked to test out these Wallace Seymour hand made oil paints.
I’ve used most of the well known brands over the years, from student quality (during my college years) to the finest quality oil paints available on the market.
'These are without doubt amongst the finest oil paints that I’ve used, and will be forming the backbone of my palette in future'
Some of the paint names won’t be familiar to many of us, such as Plumpton Iron Red and Vert Paolo Veronese for example, but that all added to the enjoyment of exploring this (new to me) range of colours - you can’t fail to be impressed!
Price: From £7.29 per tube
Where to buy: Art Supplies with Painters Online
Top features
- Handmade in the UK by Pip Seymour and Rebecca Wallace on their farm in Yorkshire
- Made to the highest quality achievable
- Pigments which can't be found anywhere else
- Thick, buttery consistency
- High pigment content means the paints last far longer than cheaper brands
- No additives
- Colours made in small quantities making each batch unique
- Made using English cold-pressed linseed oil, from a single estate farm
- Laboratory-tested and trialled in-house by artists
Advice on mediums from Wallace Seymour
Wallace Seymour Fast drying Oil Glaze & Shellsol T, a low odour mineral solvent. The fast drying oil glaze is available in 100ml, 250ml and 1litre size containers, the Shellsol T comes in 250ml, 500ml, 1 litre & 2.5 litre containers.
Because these oil colours are made without drying agents, they dry out according to the nature of the pigments used. It’s suggested that a 10-20% addition of Wallace Seymour Fast Drying Oil Glaze Medium be used, to ensure balanced drying times – but it’s important not to use too much of this.
Wallace Seymour's Fast Drying Oil Glaze Medium is a blend of Linseed Stand Oil and Dammar Varnish, with an added drying agent. It can be added to oil colours to a concentration of between 10-20%, and will create deep gloss and depth, especially to transparent colours.
Used in this manner, it will speed the drying time (typically one to two days for thin/flat paint films).
Dilute as required with Turpentine or Shellsol T low odour mineral solvent.
I used both of these suggested medium in all the trials undertaken, but very sparingly, much less than the 10-20% mentioned earlier, and found that the smallest amount did help with the paint flow and drying time.
ORDER YOUR FAST DRYING MEDIUM HERE
The colours
A selection of some of the Wallace Seymour oil colours that I’ve used in my demonstration and for my other submissions. Also shown is a bottle of their recommended fast drying oil glaze.
I tested a selection of colours which included the following:
- Plumpton Iron Red
- Mermaid Egg Ironstone
- Bohemian Green Earth
- Puisaye Burgundy Apricot Ochre
- Burnt Yellow Ochre
- Velvet Rose
- Cobalt Blue Light
- Ultramarine Blue Deep
- Raw sienna
- Burnt sienna
Conclusion
View towards the Clubhouse at Chasewater - an expressive landscape painting on Belle Arti board, 40x50cm, using Wallace Seymour oil paints
These Wallace Seymour oil paints gave me superb coverage of vibrant and luminous pure colours.
The consistency of the majority of the colours that I tried was buttery and easy to manage - a small drop of their fast drying medium made for very smooth application on the canvas, and considerably speeded up the drying time.
The ‘buttery’ consistency of Wallace Seymour oil paints - shown being mixed with a touch of Wallace Seymour Fast Drying oil glaze
Demonstration: Abandoned Bottle Kilns, Burslem
Abandoned Bottle Kilns, Burselm, Wallace Seymour oil paints on Jackson’s Belle Arti canvas board, (40x50cm)
Introduction
The Jackson's Belle Arti range are sturdy canvas covered MDF boards which make the ideal support for oil painting. They do come ready primed and ready to use, but for this particular painting I applied several fairly thick coats of acrylic gesso (mixed with white chalk dust) to the surface, randomly brushing it out in all directions - I’ve now created a perfect (slightly rough) surface for this industrial subject!
Stage One
Once the gesso was dry, I applied a thin wash of burnt sienna over the surface. I’ve used a thin wash because I’m looking for a degree of transparency to show through. I buffed away any surplus paint using a paper towel.
With a small round loaded brush, I drew out the main framework of my composition using a thin mixture of Plumpton Iron Red.
Top Tip
You need very little, if any, thinning agent - I used just a touch of Shellsol T. The paint is smooth and flows onto the canvas with little effort!
Stage Two
I always like to establish my darkest areas as soon as I can, so I used the same mix but with a touch of ultramarine blue deep, and blocked in these darkest tones, still using thin paint to keep a degree of transparancy.
Even at this early stage of a painting, I’m keen to establish the illusion of a three-dimensional image, these darker tones are the key.
Stage Three
I often leave the sky to the latter stages, something that I learned from the late Ken Howard, but on this occasion I needed to get this important area established. Once again, I’m using thinned down paint.
I made the decision to buff off some areas of paint which I felt were a bit too opaque. Not something that I often have to do, and it does need to be dry.
Stage Four
I applied another layer of thicker paint over the sky area, and using a selection of the colours that I had laid out on my palette, I proceeded to mix up some thicker consistency oil colour, blocked in the roofs and established more depth to the brick structures, indicating small areas of detail as in windows and doors.
Stage Five
I lightened up areas of the sky just a touch, and then started to work on the buildings by adding some lighter tones to selective areas - this gave the whole image a new dimension.
I used scumbling on parts of the foremost bottle kiln for added texture, and indicated a few random individual bricks, but random is the key here, we don’t want to go down the route of painting every brick!
About Alan Bickley
Alan is a retired graphic designer and editorial artist for the Daily Mail group of newspapers who has been painting and drawing for many decades, and studied fine art and graphic design at both Stafford and Derby colleges of art in the late 60’s.
Alan writes regularly for The Artist and you can enjoy a series of demonstrations in various mediums by
You can see more of Alan's work in the gallery by