Spring Dreaming of Summer

This month we thought we should share some colours with you that reflect this beautiful time of the year.

Daylight savings has just arrived so more time to enjoy the light and start to savour the longer twilights- more time in the studio, gardening and beer gardens!

Most of you will be aware that Langridge (our sister company) has now released their range of Professional Oil Colours. We are extremely excited about this!

This is the only professional oil ever made in Australia and has been 10 years in the making. David Coles, the paint maker has chosen 32 colours for the first range, with another 32 to be released within the next 10 months.

Here’s some of the colours in the new range with our slant on them- of course we have all the technical terms and descriptions of them at St. Luke and we could talk for hours about how pure and beautifully ground they are but you already know that Langridge never does anything by halves and anyway this is more fun!

UNBLEACHED TITANIUM

It’s not a mixed colour it really is unbleached titanium!

Sort of looks like the skin tone stockings you have been wearing all winter.

Just like stockings it’s beautifully soft which makes it delicious to brush out.

TITANATE YELLOW

This is the yellow of nostalgic childhood late afternoons when everything heightens in colour. You know when the grass and shadows go otherworldly?

Great for wild high lights or mix it with some Phthalo Green= Bang!

NAPHTOL RED

I’m pure and sweet, transparent and glowing

I’m St. Luke’s trademark

I’m good looking on ladies lips

I’m the red of a post box

What am I?

ZINC BLUE

David Coles emigrated from London in 1992 and he is still in awe of the Australian sky. This is his homage to the blue summer sky and we thank him very sweetly for doing it so neatly!

CADMIUM GREEN

This is the colour you want to lay down on so you can stare at the Zinc Blue sky above.

And if you feel the need to chomp on a piece of grass at the same time make sure it’s this colour!

COBALT TEAL

Now that you have taken off your winter stockings, had your trip down memory lane, had a taste of Naphthol and gone off to the gardens to experience the sky and grass what better way to end the day with swim in some Cobalt Teal water just like in those travel brochures that you never believe in until you get there!

All Langridge Professional Oil Colour is available in 40 ml, 110 ml, 1 Lt and even 4 Lt if you really want to go nuts!

Colours for a Seasonal Palette

ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN.

To play your colours by eye is worse than playing the piano by ear. –John Sloan (1875-1951)

CAPUT MORTUUM. Pigment Red 101. A velvety purple earth colour, it is also known as Mars Violet or Indian Red. St Lukettes love the intensity and warm radiance of this pigment. Its unusual name is Latin for 'dead head'. Caput Mortuum is a beautiful opaque pigment with excellent permanency. This Prepared Iron Oxide is unbelievably opaque and when used in most media dries to ultra flatness with a matt finish.

YELLOW OXIDE. Pigment Yellow 42. This is an opaque pigment with excellent permanency. This is another prepared Iron oxide pigment known as Mars Yellow, Mars orange, Iron yellow or Ochre. Yellow oxide is very bright and pure with a medium tinting strength; this colour makes a useful companion for landscape and portrait painting.

CADMIUM YELLOW DEEP. Pigment yellow 37. Not many pigments compare to the cadmium family. They are renown for their extraordinary opacity and high tinting strength. This deep warm yellow has a beautiful luminous and radiant quality. Cadmium yellow deep is an inorganic synthetic pigment with a fast drying rate, as tough as it is delicate, never underestimate a great cadmium colour.

MARS BROWN. Pigment Brown 6. Mmmmmm chocolate……… This rich deep brown has a strong red undertone and is very close to natural Burnt Umber. Very opaque, it gives excellent recession of space for shadows. Indispensable to portrait, landscape and still life painters, Mars Brown is seductively rich. Just like chocolate, Mars Brown is hard to resist.

GOLD OXIDE. Pigment 42. This prepared iron oxide has richer tones of gold than Yellow Oxide pigment and matches its natural ochre counterpart, Raw Sienna. Sitting between Yellow Oxide and Mars Orange this luxurious pigment is rich and brilliant.

This selection of pigments are part of the new range of 32 oil paints available from Langridge Artists Oil Colours.