New paints from Kama Pigments!

As time marches on so does my paint collection. This was a belated birthday present, well, an open ended birthday present I could use as needed from Mom and Dad. Over the past few months nobody is allowed to cross the borders to another province without a good reason, so many families such as ours is separated for the time being for the sake of safety. So I spent a lot of time reading about different paints. The colours that are new to me are raw sienna (PBr7), a classic earth colour that resembles caramel or orange pekoe tea with milk, can be seen in the three brown blobs in this painting, and mixed with green in the toasty looking grass. The other new (to me) colour was perylene green a relatice newcomer on the scene it is nearly black but has a distinct yellowish green tint. Both paints were highly recommended by Jane Blundell and Bruce MacEvoy on their websites. I also got a larger size of isoindo yellow called permanent yellow deep (PY110), quinacridone purple (PV55), and phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), all of which I had in the 5mL tube now I have in the larger 15 mL tube. I was using those three a lot. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, B side Geraniums, July 2020

I got the paints from Kama Pigments, an incredible store that sells raw materials for making paint from scratch, using powdered pigments, and a lot of other art supplies. They carry Daniel Smith brand paints which was great because I wanted to try more of those after good experiences with their paints (except for ultramarine blue which had a problem last year). It is tempting to make my own paints, but that will be for another time, for now it is cheaper and easier to buy a few tubes here and there. I am looking forward to getting out on location and trying some of the new paints especially perylene green.

Perylene green is chemically similar to perylene maroon, a dark rusty red that resembles dried blood. These are pigments derived from petro-chemicals so they are all relatively new, as in 20th century pigments that are slowly entering the watercolour market. Perylene green is a very dark paint, and looks grey-green when diluted. It looks good for making greys with PV55 purple, and most of all for making shadow colours in trees and grass.

Here are some basic tests, the first set of dots were mixes of perylene green and benzimida yellow. Then I compared it to phthalo green blue shade (PG7) and phthalo green yellow shade (PG36), you can see how dark and dull the colour is on perylene green which is not a bad thing... those brighter colours rarely appear in nature. Finally, I had to try mixing perylene green with perylene maroon (PR179), and it produced a wonderful neutral warm brown. Like sun-faded wood or roast beef cooked in the oven!