Westerberg Fine Art

What is Torrit Grey? Well about a year or so a go my good friend Lorna told me about Gamblin Oil Paint Manufacture’s Annual Painting competition using their color
Torrit Grey.

Every spring, Gamblin Artists Colors collects a wealth of pigments from their Torit® Air Filtration system. They filter the air around the areas where they handle dry pigments so that their workers are not exposed to pigment dust. Rather than sending any of our high quality, expensive pigments into the landfill, Gamblin paint makers recycle them into “Gamblin Torrit Grey”.  So Torrit Grey is a compilation of all Gamblin’s pigments and each year it is a slightly different color but always seems to lean toward the green side because of their powerful Phthalo green pigment.

“Pigment dust should not go into the earth, water or landfill, but into paint,” says Robert Gamblin.

Torrit Grey can be acquired at most art stores that sell Gamblin paints.  If you buy a tube of Gamblin paint they will give you a tube of Torrit Grey for free!  I just ordered some Gamblin paint from Jerry’s Artarama on line and they sent me a free tube.

The competition offers a $500 Gamblin Materials first prize and several secondary awards for more information and an entry form click here.  Basically you can use only Torrit Grey, Back, and White the subject matter can be anything……

One of the most frustrating problems I have had and most painters face at one time or another is finding the correct lighting for your studio.

If you paint at night or don’t have a skylight in your studio you need light. The problem is getting the correct temperature light so that your painting looks the same in daylight as it does when you painted it under your studio light.

The temperature of the most incandescent bulbs or florescent tubes  can vary greatly but most painters prefer to paint under 5500k which is the color of north light.  North light is the preferred light of most traditional painters such as John Singer Sargent, Richard Schmid, Anders Zorn to name a few, because it is a soft, cool and consistent light source.

In the past I had used a few different color florescent tubes to replicate north light in my studio and it was ok.  The problem was I had a few different color florescent tubes and the fixtures were starting to hum and they flickered.   I was starting to lose my mind…….

So I consulted a couple of lighting experts, here is their blog post where they go into much more detail about lighting Steropsis.com

They told me were to buy correctly balanced florescent tubes.   They suggested t8 florescent tubes, the thinner tubes, which are more efficient don’t hum or flicker !  Here is the link where you can purchase these tubes T8 5000k

They are around $5.50 a piece. You can also purchase them through Amazon. Unfortunately you can’t buy these tubes at Home Depot or Lowes.  You can however buy the fixture at Home Depot or most lighting stores.  The type of fixture you are going to need will depend on the size of your studio space just make sure it holds t8 tubes.  I have two four tube fixtures in my studio.

Here is an example Home Depot.

All of this shouldn’t cost you more then $200.00 and it is well worth it!  My studio now has new t8 5000k lights and they are unbelievably nice.  I was actually quit surprised at how close these lights are to natural light.  Thank You Lorna and Mike!

This is a color Chart I made using the “Zorn Palette”.  This was not Anders Zorn’s ( 1860-1920) only palette he did have other colors that he used especially when he worked outside, this palette refers primarily to his indoor work.  It is basically simplified primaries: Red, Yellow, and Blue.

I use Gamblin Ivory Black, Utrecht Yellow Ochre, Windsor Newton Cadmium Red and Titanium/Zinc White.

The Chart shows the range of the palette as you can see it is fairly large.  Let me explain how the colors are laid out.

The first swatch (upper left corner) is Ivory Black, and below I have gradated it white white.  Next to that is Ivory Black mixed with Cad Red, Black being the dominate color. Ect ect ect….

Below are examples of Zorn’s Work.

I used this palette quite a bit when I was learning to paint and I still use it today.  Its a great starter palette.

Below are the brands of paint I typically use.

Check out the Jan/Feb edition of Artist’s Magazine.  They did an article on the iphone App EnsoMobile created for me.  On newsstands now!  Page 18.

Don’t have a newsstand nearby? order it here Print Edition