Paint review: Winsor & Newton AOC Flake White No 1

Until relatively recently, lead based paints were the only high quality whites available to artists and there is a long tradition of their use. In recent years however lead based paints have been increasingly outlawed for reasons of Health and Safety. There are valid reasons for this and they do present a genuine risk if consumed, breathed in or worked extensively with bare skin. I was never too bothered about their disappearance until recently as I'd always been happy with titanium white, erroneously thinking white is white. Others knew better though, so many artists have been up in arms as ban after ban has come in. Lucien Freud famously bought pretty much the entire stock of his supplier of choice's Cremnitz when restrictions first loomed on the horizon. As of this year, Winsor and Newton are perhaps the only source of affordable genuine lead based whites in the UK. This is because, although in the EU there are exemptions in place allowing lead based paint to be sold to artists, the loss of every other market means that pigment manufacturers don't bother making the raw pigment that paint makers use. Niche manufacturers like my favourite, Michael Harding, make their own pigment but this leads to astronomical costs, so kudos to W&N for going against the grain.

"A warm white, made from completely opaque and permanent pigment, Flake White is a fast drier and mixes very well with other pigments, reducing their colors softly due to its low tinting strength... Desired by oil painters for its mixing qualities and pure whiteness, Flake White creates an astonishingly durable and flexible paint film. It was once commonly used as a base layer on canvas due to the strength the pigment gave to the paint film. Conservationists note that sections of oil paintings containing Flake White withstand time better than those without." W&N website

Sounds good!

Over the last few months I have been working my way through a tin of genuine Flake White and it has been a revelation. On opening the can and digging in a trowel, the first impression is one of stiffness combined with softness. This paint is even stiffer than the Williamsburg Umber I reviewed a couple of months ago. Soft brushes are not a viable option unless the paint is mixed with other paints or modified with thinners or a medium. Having spent the time adjusting to this I like this aspect of the paint. Unmodified it holds marks and textures far better than any paint I have ever used and adding thinners or a medium is hardly a hardship.

Applied on its own, unless it is applied impasto, it has far less covering power than my titanium white. For my method of applying translucent and transparent layers of colour this is a huge advantage, especially as it interacts with the colour it is going over far more subtly than the other whites. Equally, as W&N say, it is far softer in a mix, making it much easier to get controlled tints than with the sledgehammer that is titanium. For tints I would say Ti is brightest and harshest, Zinc is crispest and cleanest and Flake is softest.

Using three whites, often in the same painting, has been an education. As the three are noticeably different colours and have substantially different characteristics, making tints from the same colour with different whites creates very subtle relationships. This is what my Enwhitenment project will explore in due course (the missing ingredient, Cremnitz (Names of lead based whites have shifted over time - usually a mix of lead carbonate PW1 and zinc oxide PW4 is known as Flake white whereas pure PW1 is known as Cremnitz where historically it was a reflection of origin and pigment quality -far more heavily loaded with pigment and accordingly with a different, more stringy texture and apparently it has more of a glow in tints), is available again but I can't afford it right now) in a more formal way. Zinc is coldest and clearest - see the patches of blue sky in my work, which is pthalo blue with zinc - Ti the whitest and Flake the warmest.

Overall, I adore this paint. It has become my default white. I frequently use it with Zinc as a counterpoint and have all but abandoned Titanium. It mixes easily and the range of textures is glorious. The fact that it is as close as white comes to being translucent is a huge bonus for my way of working.

Thoroughly recommended.