Rosa Watercolours were developed and made in the Ukraine and have been available since 2018. I feel for this company - it must be a very tough year. The 60 colours were created in consultation with Ukrainian artists, with the 10 newest of them added in 2021. They come as full pans - cleverly labelled so that as you remove the label from the paint, you can leave the colour name and pigment information on the sides of each pan. There is no series number so they are all the same price. A set of 14 is also available in 10ml tubes.
Available in Australia from Adamstown Art who kindly provided the samples to show.
Golden Yellow was difficult to capture accurately. It is a bright orange-yellow, typical of this pigment.
PR 4 and PR2 are not lightfast so beware of Coral for anything that will be framed. PR170:1 is not a totally lightfast pigment so I wouldn't agree with this *** lightfast rating either.
These rewet with ease and painted out nicely in more diluted washes but some were difficult to get smooth in a thicker wash. G stands for Granulating and N stands for Natural Pigment.
I've scanned and colour-matched each swatch as carefully as I can so the colours are as accurate as I can manage.
Rosa Watercolours: Zinc White, Titanium White, Naples Yellow Light, Naples Rose, Cadmium Lemon.
Golden Yellow was difficult to capture accurately. It is a bright orange-yellow, typical of this pigment.
Rosa Watercolours: Aureoline, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Yellow Medium,
Cadmium Yellow Deep, Golden Yellow
Rosa Watercolours: Quinacridone Gold, Cadmium Orange, Flame Red,
Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red Medium.
Rosa Watercolours: Coral, Bright Red, Madder Red, Carmine, Madder Rose.
Rosa Watercolours: Opera Rose, Magenta Rose, Quinacridone Lilac, Quinacridone Violet, Violet
PV3 is not lightfast, so only use Lavender in a sketchbook or for reproduction work.
Rosa Watercolours - Lavender, Blue Indanthrene, Ultramarine, Royal blue, Cobalt Blue.
Rosa Watercolours - Blue, Bright Blue, Cerulean Blue, Indigo, Turquoise.
While I think PG8 is a gorgeous green, it is not a lightfast pigment.
Rosa Watercolours - Cobalt Turquoise, Mint, Emerald Green, Green, Sap Green.
Rosa Watercolours - Chromium Oxide, Bright Green, Olive Green, Aureoline Green, Yellow Ochre
Rosa Watercolours - Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Royal Brown, English Red, Madder Brown.
Rosa Watercolours - Caput Mortuum, Burnt Umber, Mars Brown, Umber, Sepia.
PV3 is not a lightfast pigment so Black Grape would change over time.
Rosa Watercolours - Warm Grey, Payne's Grey, Black Grape, Blick Green, Neutral Black
Happy painting!
Thank you for sharing this information about this Ukrainian paint company. I have previously purchased but never swatched them out. I would be interested in reading more about Rosa Gallery watercolors.
ReplyDeleteI'm european and purchased most of the colors. While some are lovely, I found that others tend to have that dry/chalky feeling to them. And perhaps it's just me, but they seem to dry really fast and tend to be veeeeeeeery sticky.
ReplyDeleteThe pans and tubes are slightly (but very little) cheaper than White Nights here , (strictly speaking related to watercolor quality now) which are still vastly superior in my opinion but I am aware they may not be available for sale anymore in some countries because of political aspects.
If you do not wish to purchase White Nights though ( I collected them pre 2022 ) then the Rosas are a really cheap good investment imho.
How is the quality compare with white night and Roman szmal ? Are they chalky ? Thank you .
ReplyDeleteI posted a comment but it wasn't approved where I described my experience with Rosa and White Nights. I am very disappointed.
DeleteBoth White Nights and Roman Szmal are better in terms of quality. Some of the Rosa watercolors are chalky and not as lightfast as the label says. They are good for practice and beginners but if you want artist grade colors, invest in something else.
I think they are similar to white nights, except some colours. However I've seen that some colours have changed composition. It might be because they are struggling to find some pigments because of war. I think the biggest difference with other brands is that they flow a lot and they are easy to lift, so if you like those two things and are looking for good quality-price relation paints, you might like them.
DeleteI have been using White Nights for a while before discovering Rosa, and I must say I much prefer Rosa (that now counts 80 colors, including beautiful granulating shades similar to DS). Political aspect aside, the manufacturer of WN got itself into a huge scandal with their poor PR and customer service, all Internet community or artists basically rioted against them, also noting discrepancies in paint weight in the tubes and other problems. As for Rosa, I agree with lightfast level mislabeling, but the colors work wonderfully on all types of paper and are a delight to work with. So it might as well be a matter of personal preference. You gotta try and decide for yourself what works for you and your goals.
DeleteI really like the idea and price point of Rosa Gallery watercolors, but I'm disappointed in how they've labeled several colors as *** (fully lightfast) when they absolutely are not. Beware of Coral and Carmine, especially. Those two totally faded to white in Kim Crick's one year test! Others with less obvious shifts were Madder Red (rated ***), Lavender (rated ***), Green (rated **), and Opera Rose (of course).
ReplyDeleteThank you for this reminder - I've added those warnings into the text.
DeleteI do moderate the comments, but I only delete inappropriate comments, generally with random links to something else.
DeleteThank you for posting this. I’m from Ukraine and I hope after our win Rosa will become better and better
ReplyDeleteDo they have metallic paints ?
ReplyDelete