Dirty Blue hand-made watercolours

Dirty Blue watercolours are 'handmulled with lots of passion and even more pigment' in The Netherlands. They are available via Etsy. These are mostly single pigment colours, with lots of special rare or hard to find colours. I enjoy watching all the explorations on Instagram and YouTube.

The pan labels are hand-painted and the pans themselves have been 3D printed with the pigment number on them - as you can see below. Now that is dedication! There are also tiny pans available with just a dot of some colours. If you look closely you can see that the YInMn Blue and Manganese Blue pans below are specially 3D printed pans. These are just filled in the top half (¼ pans) to make these expensive pigments more affordable. If you want a palette set, there is a great mixing set of 14 half pans available too.

You an even buy pigment jewellery and custom pans in a range of fun shapes, and a swatch stencil. Lots to explore.

I received a mixture of half pans, quarter pans and mini pans of the following colours and have colour-matched them as closely as I can. 

PY153 is a discontinued pigment so it's lovely to see this available. Pyrrol Scarlet is my recommended warm red in a palette. This is a rich and deep version of YInMn Blue. Phthalo Cyan is a gorgeous blue, and a rarely seen pigment. Manganese Blue is hardly available anywhere any more, and this is a terrific and rich example of this cool granulating blue.

Dirty Blue Watercolours: Indian yellow, Pyrrol Scarlet, Ultramarine Pink, YInMn Blue, Phthalo Cyan, Manganese Blue.

These colours are more standard, but nice versions of each.

Dirty Blue Watercolours: Turquoise Cobalt, Green Earth, Oxide Green, Green Gold, Yellow Ochre

Genuine Quinacridone Gold is no longer available from any of the big manufacturers. This version is more orange than the previous genuine PO49 but is a lovely colour. The Burnt Sienna has some wonderful granulation, as does Potter's Pink. The Dirty Blue signature colour is a fascinating greenish bluish grey.

Dirty Blue Watercolours: Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna, Potter's Pink,
Green Umber, Dirty Blue Signature colour.

You may like to watch the demonstration of the process of creating a gorgeous blue pigment from Lapis Lazuli on the YouTube Chanel - just as it was done hundreds of years ago.

These swatches have been added to my website by colour and pigment.

Happy new year for 2023. I hope it is full of colour and creation :-)

'Grounded' Solo Exhibition December 2022

I've been working solidly this year on new watercolour pieces for my solo exhibition Grounded which opened on Saturday 3rd December 2022. It is on at Gallery 11:11 in Epping, Sydney, with an opening celebration on the Saturday night. It is being supported by Roma Vino and Ta One Tha. Roma Vino distribute Little Giant Wines - I love their distinctive wombat label and have had a few of their lovely red wines. I look forward to trying more.

The exhibition runs from the 3rd December until the 17th December. Most of the paintings feature a quite restrained watercolour palette. They are painted using ochre, umber, Sienna pigments and even earth blues, greens and reds, along with some brighter pigments, to capture the texture and details of the subjects. It is quite a contrast to last years Drawn to Nature show that largely featured the brilliant colour of flowers. Here is a little video chatting the Melony from the gallery about these colours.

We also have some wonderful wooden turned bowls and chainsaw sculptures by Simon Begg at the gallery. I met him at a school exhibiton and bought a beautiful camphor laurel bowl. His chain-saw sculptures are delightful.

On Friday 2nd December we had a dinner and artist talk at Ta One Thai.

If you couldn't make the dinner or the opening, here is the booking link to book during the week, or to book a virtual tour. Or you can come along during the weekends without booking. Or see a virtual tour here.

At the end of the exhibition we'll have an event supported by Whale Rock Brewing on the 16th December - they will provide tastings of their boutique beer :-) 

We've printed a huge decal of my feature full-sheet watercolour 'Grounded'. This is 165cm wide and can be an amazing feature wall image. Here it is coming out from the printer.

While the exhibition was on, I taught a two-day workshop with a focus on natural objects, fungi and earth colours at the gallery. It is a wonderful space with great lighting.

I'll be at the gallery from 11 - 3 on Sunday the11th December.

With all my paintings completed, I've had time at last to begin a big update of my website, especially the Watercolour Swatches section. This was one of the first sections I put onto my website. My aim was to paint out and show every commercially available watercolour in the world. It is currently arranged by colour but I am reorganising it further by pigment and arranging each gallery alphabetically. I'll also be re-scanning many of the swatches for better colour accuracy. And I have yet more colours to add...

My blog continues to grow and has just surpassed 6,004,066  page views. I have gradually been adding the full range of every commercially available watercolour, arranged by brand. 

Both of these goals are a big task, as manufacturers add and removed colours and pigments constantly. I am very grateful to the manufacturers, retailers and individuals who have sent me samples to add to these resources. Keep them coming! I'll also be doing a review of each range over the next few months, to try to track the changes and add updates.

Happy painting!