I like free stuff!

I was hoping to be analysing this artist and that artist today, but with one thing and another London will wait. Instead, I thought I would share a resource I stumbled across.

It appears the only supplier of reasonably priced genuine lead paints in England at the moment is Winsor and Newton, (Mr Harding, I don't care how good it is, £400 per litre is too much money for white paint) so I have spent some time on their website. If you can see past the PR it is a fabulous resource which I will be referring to extensively in future. I particularly like the analysis of historic painters palettes.

This morning while following links and trying to find somewhere with Cremnitz White both in stock and below full retail, a dealer's website pointed me to a free download I hadn't noticed: The Oil Colour Book. Look past the agenda (strangely enough, it only mentions one manufacturer's ranges and only describes one manufacturer's history in depth before eulogising that same manufacturer's commitment to excellence at every opportunity) and there is excellent information on pigments and oils and their characteristics and on techniques, supports, manufacturing processes and just about everything oily. More detailed information is out there, but to get it in one place costs money and this will be more than deep enough for most people.