[John de la Vega]

Paint brands do matter. Not all oil paints are created equal. The main differences between brands are differences in hue beauty, paint flow and pigmentation. Hue beauty is a personal, let's call it subjective, matter. It depends on sensitivity, taste, and exposure to color. Paint flow is affected by ingredients, binder and manufacturing, such as degree of thorough mixing of binder and pigment. Today most brands have standarized the procedure, but occasionally you find paint tubes with less-than-thorough mixing, where the oil is runny. This happens not only in student-grade paint but also in some so-called 'professional' grade colors. It's a quality control factor.

Some of the more expensive brands give you more concentration of color, so they are highly cost effective, although not always. Take the case of Old Holland, one of the best, if not THE best, overall brand. Some of the Old Holland colors are not expensive, comparing very favorably in price to brands like Winsor Newton and Grumbacher. A case in point is the Naples Yellow Deep, which I mention in my article in the "Flesh tint in oil" section of this forum. It's a beautiful and unique hue, with a lot of pigment, costing under 12 dollars. Then you have the Old Holland Magenta, a beautiful hue in the 28-30 dollar range for a regular size tube, which can be VERY succesfully replaced with the Maimieri Puro Verzino violet, which I also mention in that article. The Maimieri is a lovely magenta, with the same amount of pigmnent as the Old Holland, at around 12 dollars. The Old Holland Dioxazine Mauve is also NOT cost effective at around 30 dollars. It is slightly, but not appreciably, more pigmented than the Winsor Newton or Gamblin dioxazines, these at about one-third of the price. So unless you're willing to experiment with different brands, not a bad idea if you can spend the extra money and work on another form of 'color awareness', stay with the ones you're using. Winsor Newton has lost a bit of the quality it once had. Better choices are Gamblin, Utrecht - recommended by Chris Saper in the previous article - or Daler-Rowney. Grumbacher Pre-tested is fine, and it's made in the USA.

The earth colors, Raw Sienna Raw Umber, etc., are not expensive in Old Holland but also not appreciable better than other professional color. The earth colors are indeed 'convenience colors', and, with the exception of Raw and Burnt Sienna (which I recommend to have on your palette), can be easily mixed, especially if you want to work with cleaner, more vibrant color in shadows, hair, backgrounds, etc. The Burnt Sienna I recommend is Blockx Burnt Sienna Deep.

Ordering through a catalogue would indeed be a convenient, and less expensive, way to buy oil paint for you. Stay away from the water-mixable oils. They just don't handle like regular oils, and the range of hues available is limited.

A word about number of colors on the palette. I work with a palette of about thirty-six colors (not all pure hues, some mixtures I pre-mix) plus white. If it's true you can do OK with a limited palette, why limit yourself to a portion of the rainbow, when you can work with the whole
rainbow? Sure, an experienced pianist can get good music from a kiddie piano or a spinet, but no one intersted in richness and ease of sound would even practice on one of these, let alone play a concert with them, right? When nothing less than a fine grand piano will do, when the rich, exquisite overtones that a Baldwin, Steinway, or Bossendorfer can provide, why even fool with the spinet? Unless, of course, you're trying to challenge yourself to really learn to produce the best sound with the least means, which you may want to do occasionally.

Too much color on the palette can be confusing to the beginner, but in the hands of an experienced, adventurous painter, there's nothing like playing on a full grand piano. Unlike a fine grand piano at many thousands of dollars, a full color palette is relatively inexpensive and exceptionally rewarding to a painter's soul.