About six months ago, I came across A. Gallo watercolours. I’d never heard of them before; my first impression was that they were definitely in the price area I generally don’t visit. I’d seen them on Jackson’s website; however, they were out of stock. So I went searching and eventually landed on the A. Gallo site.
From what I’d read, they were Artist range not student range.I was hooked, and I had to try them.
I opened them up this week, and if you have ever owned an Apple product, you will understand how important presentation is to lift a product into the luxury expectation. A.Gallo has it in spades.
As of writing, there are a large range of sets and a range of 100 colours
The set I bought was a small, heavy-weight box with the A.Gallo logo of a tree on the front. When the lid was removed, there was a tissue-wrapped tin inside.
I bought the Essential 6, which is the three primary colours in warm and cool. Each pan was wrapped with a card cover with the colour painted and the name and information on. Inside the tin was also a little swatch card to fill.
I opened each one and swatched it in my swatch book as well as on this little card.
With very little water or brushing, the little pans gave up their colours, and my goodness, what gorgeously creamy colours they are.
A little background to the brand. A. Gallo is Alina Gallo who developed the paints as an answer to her skin sensitivity; she wanted paints that were safe, non-toxic, and free from mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium and cobalt.
She researched historic records and medieval manuscripts to find recipes that would work. Each paint painstakingly mulled by hand on a glass slab. The paints she developed are creamy, mixed with pure pigment, and mixed with gum arabic and honey, with the addition of rosemary essential oil. Each paint painstakingly mulled by hand on a glass slab, created by hand and poured in layers many times over to produce fast-acting paint pans with no air bubbles or cracks.
For those in Assisi, Italy, the website offers paint-making demonstrations.
The Essential 6, which I’ve shown here costs around 60 pounds sterling
Available from Jacksons.
Definitely worth visiting their website, there is so much information there.
They also offer paintmaking demonstrations if you are in the area.
They say “Come meet us and see how we create our watercolours on a glass slab with a
crystal muller according to a traditional recipe of earth, mineral and
plant based pigments, gum arabic from the acacia tree, local honey from
Umbria and rosemary essential oil.”
DEMO EVERY SATURDAY AT 12pm
