 I know I've talked about this before, but I'm often asked for my favourite watercolours and, after using them fairly steadily for a few years, especially during my 2-month residency at the ASA Gallery, I definitely lean toward certain varieties.
1. Daniel Smith (Altoids tin): this is my favourite set to travel with as it contains primary colours, I'm not that particular about which yellow, red and blue I use, it rewets & dries easily and, since I've used large pans, the mini Altoids tin carries a lot of colour in a very small container. 2. M.Graham (Art Toolkit Pocket Palette): I love, love, love using M.Graham but they can be a bit challenging to travel with as they have a honey base and never totally dry which means they are a bit tacky/sticky so humid climates are a challenge. In this palette I currently have primary & secondary colours (red, yellow, blue & orange, green, purple) but I sometimes switch it up to include warm & cool primaries. There's lots of mixing space on this business card sized palette which is a bonus. 3. Rosa Watercolors (largest palette): I primarily use this palette in my studio and love how easily the colours reactivate. No matter which colours I've used in this brand, they all re-wet easily and are very vibrant plus I love the full pans. 4. Beam Paints: I really love Beam gouache paints. This is a wonderful product, Canadian made (east coast) by an Indigenous woman using only fully natural/organic materials. The gouache and watercolour does require a spray of water and a little time to sit for the paint to reactive before working with them. 5. Joan of Art (center bottom): Another Canadian woman-owned business (west coast). They offer the cutest little travel tin that holds a small pencil, sharpener, erasor, brush and 3 1/2 pans of watercolour but I love so many of their colours that I created a 12-pan set for myself. If they offered full pans & re-fill tubes, I think this would be my brand of choice. A couple of things I always have to consider are whether they are vibrant as I love colour & am impatient so I don't like to spray and wait for the paint to wet (and dry), especially on the go, and whether my husband reacts to them when they are wet (allergies). Comments are closed.
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