Rembrandt Oil Painting

I've spent 15 of my years occasionally painting, and 10 years working in an art supplies shop where one of the brands we sold was Rembrandt oil colours. Having tried several brands of oil paints, including Old Holland (which I will compare it to the most), Winsor & Newton and Sennelier, I have come to the conclusion that – for me at least, and I would argue for most artists – Rembrandt is the best one. There are several reasons for this: Firstly, all colours are fully lightfast. I know some people actually like the properties and colours you can only get in non-permanent pigments, such as woad, alizarin crimson, genuine indigo and prussian blue, to mention some of the most popular ones. But I think most artists would agree it is nice to know that their work will not change even in their own lifetime, due to slow-lived pigments. A slightly negative thing about this choice is of course that there are no cheap pure reds or yellows as the less costly pigments found in other paints would not be used in the Rembrandt range, and thus it does increase the price somewhat on some colours. Something else that long-time users of Rembrandt would have noticed too, of course, is that some of their old favourite colours may have had their recipes changed, and the colour itself different from the one you knew and loved. Especially the crimsons would have been affected by this (The last major change was around the Millennium, though). Secondly, all colours are balanced to have the same consistency and relative intensity. This may not seem like a huge deal. Some makers of oil pride themselves on cramming as much pigment as possible into a tube, meaning consistency and covering power will vary hugely from one colour to the other. That is the philosophy Old Holland has seemed to adhere to over the years. I think the choice Royal Talens has made with Rembrandt is the right one, by using colourless fillers (mostly chalk) and stabilisers ( mostly aluminium stearate) in varying, very small, amounts for different colours to ensure that all colours behave in pretty much the same way (except when it comes to drying time, which is affected by the pigment to such a high extent that any attempt to adjust it would have a negative effect on other properties). I know other makers of oil paints like pointing this out, bragging that their colours contain no additives, but that isn't necessarily ideal. This also means that Rembrandt, despite a high pigment load, still can be used for impasto and knife painting techniques where something as intense as many Old Holland colours would be completely unsuitable because of too much pigment. Another nice thing about the consistency is that it can also be applied in relatively thin layers without having to add thinner. This is the way I prefer to work myself, and I can achieve intense thin layers simply by patiently brushing the paint into the canvas, and a little paint goes a long way. Not only is it a preferable for health reasons, but it also makes a stronger paint layer that will be more resistant to UV fading and cracking Thirdly, the Rembrandt range has some unique colours that I've not seen in many or any other ranges of artists' oils: A fully transparent white, bright yellow and bright red, cobalt violet, and ultramarine green (which I think of as the green brother of indigo) are some of the interesting ones. Particularly the first three have very unique qualities that you couldn't emulate in any other way but having those particular colours. If you mix a transparent colour with a regular zinc or titanium white, you also add a lot of covering power and white, being the most opaque element in the mix, becomes the most dominant. With transparent white added to otherwise transparent colours, you make them lighter without affecting the transparency or richness of it. In conclusion, there are many reasons not only to love, but also to favour Rembrandt oils over other brands, especially if you like transparent colours and the added versatility you get from having a transparent white, red and yellow; or if you like painting straight from the tube and want the richness of a true artist's quality without needing to thin the paint. People's tastes differ, and so do their techniques, so I would naturally not claim Rembrandt is best for everyone, but I think Talens have found a perfect balance making it the best choice for most. For anyone wondering which paint is going to be right for them, I can only suggest getting a tube of white plus two colours that mix well (Ultramarine and Alizarin Crimson, for instance) in all the different oil paints you can easily get, try them all out, compare their working properties, study the colour range they offer, and then decide on which one is right for you. Sometimes, a mix of different brands can be ideal too.