Pip Seymour Oils

If you've recently been through a formal art education in the UK, Pip Seymour's work may be well known to you. He might even be a bit of a legend. He wrote one of several books that share the name of "The Artist's Handbook" which is a complete discourse on materials and techniques. Me? I was trained with reference to the Ray Smith equivalent so only know Pip's by reputation.

I first came across his products last time I was painting. I was in Atlantis and there were some reduced to clear glaze mediums and linseed oil and, frankly, it seemed rude not to given the price. They did everything they claimed quietly, efficiently and without fuss. So when on Thursday, as is my habit, I looked in the window of Cornelissen's on my way out of the British Museum I was intrigued to some tubes of paint bearing his name in a part of the display given over to professional paints like Michael Harding. I was even more intrigued when I saw what the colours were. Oxford Ochre? Hangman's Lodge Ironstone? What strange colours are these? The names suggested they might be English Earths.

On entering the shop I found a handful of colours, many of which had similarly evocative names. I read the labels, talked to the staff and bought a hand painted colour chart. After all, I have no frame of reference when it comes to colours with names like "Honister Green Slate (Pale)". They are indeed English Earth colours. They are from a range of paints known as "Early Oils". It turns out these are part of a larger - but still small - range of colours including many which have been dug by hand from specific named places before being ground and combined with oil. The range also contains some French earths and traditional colours. Many of these traditional colours aren't available elsewhere: for example I have never seen a genuine smalt in oils before.

But wait! the paint gets yet more intriguing. Many of the colours are left slightly gritty; even more so than the grittier Williamsburg paints. The shop staff showed me their colour chart, which had an explanation on the back. The colour given by the pigment changes according to how finely ground it is, and there a was a second colour chart on back showing just a few colours, each one mulled once, twice and thrice more than the production version to show how the paints lost their character as they became finer. Another fascinating thing is that Pip takes small batch production to an extreme. His website says that oil paints are made in batches of up to 1 litre at a time.

So we are left with textured colours, some delicate, some strong, many unique. There is a soft blue grey by the name of Lapis Lazuli Ash which I guess is self explanatory in every aspect except its beauty. The "normal" lapis is the most delicate I have ever seen. Hangman's Lodge Ironstone is like a very bright, semi-transarent yellow ochre. Plumpton Iron Ore is an a softer, more violet iron oxide. Oxford Mudstone is one of the colours of the Thames riverbank. The two Honister Green Slates are the colour of the English countryside in the rain, as is Woad.

Money prevents me from giving you any indication of what they are like in use, but next time I'm buying paint I will get that colour chart out again.

There is a colour chart of the wider range here. It seems the full range of Early Oils is only available at Cornelissens, but to confuse matters they don't appear to sell the more modern range.