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Contemporary knowledge dedicated to the making of traditional materials. Beautiful, high quality, bright paint.
 
Gamblin Artist's Oil Colours are made with pure pigments and the finest refined linseed oil. As there are no adulterants or additives in Gamblin colours, each colour retains its own unique characteristics including tinting strength, undertone and texture.
Gamblin is dedicated to maintaining the tradition of oil painting while also working towards an artist's studio with no exposure to toxic solvents.
 
Crafted by hand with the well-being of artists, their work, and the environment in mind. True to historic working properties, yet safer and more permanent, they combine the best traditions of the past with the latest technical innovations, giving you the freedom to create without compromise.
 
Made with the finest grades of pigment available, Gamblin Artist's Oils have luscious working properties, and each colour possesses unique characteristics in terms of texture, undertone, and tinting strength. The range of colours includes both historically accurate paints and modern, synthetically derived hues. 
 
All Gamblin Artist's Oil Paints are completely non-toxic when used as recommended. Most are made with alkali-refined linseed oil as a binder, which creates a strong, flexible paint film and yellows significantly less than cold press linseed oil, the traditional binder in oil paints. Select colours that use safflower oil as a binder. Not only are these vegetable oils completely non-toxic, but they are also commonly used in health and beauty products, so you can trust in their safety.
 
Reds
Since the introduction of Cadmiums at the turn of the 20th century, the red hue family has greatly expanded to include such colours as the semi-transparent Naphthol and Perinone Reds and the transparent Quinacridone Reds.
 
Using transparent reds opens possibilities unthinkable before this century. Instead of making glazes by thinning down an opaque colour (which doesn’t increase transparency) or choosing the less lightfast alizarins, painters can use Perylene Red, a warm lightfast red that is completely transparent. Just imagine what Turner might have done with these reds!
 
Until the late 20th century, scientists were not able to tell the difference between human blood and earth red (ferric) iron oxide pigments. Vermillion was an alchemical mixture from the 9th century AD. Combining sulphur and mercury may have been an attempt to produce the philosopher’s stone.
 
The resulting bright, opaque red was a marvel short of philosophy but a delight to painters for a thousand years. The earth red and vermillion colours were prepared by Robert Gamblin for a Smithsonian Institute research project and are not available from Gamblin Artists Colors.
 
Early artists knew the difference between fugitive and permanent pigments. They realized earth reds do not change through time or as a result of climate. Earth colours are rated ASTM Lightfastness I – the highest lightfastness rating. Iron oxide deposits are still found all over the world. Anthropologists believe the hematite (anhydrous ferric oxide) mines in South Africa have been worked for more than 40,000 years. There is the almost universal use of red pigment for funerary purposes. 
 
The underground colour suggests an association with life-sustaining blood. Hematite is a natural form of iron oxide red found in Neanderthal caves where 20,000 to 35,000-year-old bodies had been completely submerged in the red pigment.
 
Cinnabar, the principal ore of mercury came from the Almaden mines of Spain for the artists of Pompeii. Cinnabar, a soft earthy lump of bright red, was an ingredient in recipes for preparing the philosopher’s stone as well as the artists’ colour, Vermillion. Since the thirteenth century CE, red artists’ colour has been artificially synthesized from mercury and sulphur. 
 
Vermillion is a dense opaque colour that may blacken when exposed to the air or when painted next to white lead. Red lead, which definitely blackens in air, was used as a substitute for genuine Vermillion because it was a less expensive pigment. By the 1930s, lightfast, permanent with considerably lower toxicity, Cadmium Red had replaced Vermillion on artists’ palettes.
 
The red earth is common in mural painting and easel painting throughout history. Although completely permanent and lightfast, red earth is dull when compared with the bright reds made from mercury. Other reds were made from organic matter, such as the madder root, dried bodies of insects or pomegranate peel.
 
It was 1868 before Alizarin was extracted from the madder root. Alizarin Crimson is the least permanent red colour commonly found in artists’ palettes today. 
 
The madder root and Alizarin colours prepared by Robert Gamblin for a Smithsonian Institute research project are not available from Gamblin Artists Colors.