Monday 27 August 2018

Testing Watercolours in the Sun Part IV

It is now over 7 years ago that I started testing the colour fastness of Winsor & Newton Artist Quality Payne's grey, Sap Green, Sepia, Crimson, Ultramarine, Lemon Yellow, Winsor Blue, Winsor Red and Winsor Orange

I painted stripes of those colours on a piece of 300grs Arches torchon  paper and cut that in 3 strips.
Then I put 1 strip in a binder and of the other two, I varnished one and did not treat the other. After that I taped them to the south facing window of my atelier (bright sunshine every day, all day, I live in the South of France...). 

For 4 years, I compared them and already after the first year it was clear that the Alazarin Crimson had faded a bit. I found out that I hadn't used the 'permanent' version, so that is an explanation.
With the other colours the changes are minimal. The unvarnished Sepia has faded a bit more, but in general I think the colours have stayed good.
Conclusion: buy 'permanent' versions of your W&N artist quality paints, and if you use a lot of sepia, give it one or two sprays of varnish. (I used schmincke aquarelle varnish)  

We are now 3 years further - in total over 7 years of bright sunlight and there is nothing spectacular to report. 
 This pic is made this morning, in August 2018. Above strip: 2 layers of varnish, 7 years in the sun, middle strip: has not seen any sunshine, below strip: unprotected.

Top strip is varnished
 
If after more than 7 years in the bright sun, your painting behind glass will still be almost perfect, I think most of you will be fine with that. But - for those of you who work for eternity- I will return the strips to their spot in the sun and report every X years. 

There is something spectacular about this anyway! And that is how something that is printed (by an official printer) fades... Unbelievable - and that was on the Hangar window, not even south facing - and half the time behind a steel door... Cool stuff, our paint!!
Before                     After

This is how a standard printed folder fades in less than a year.

That's all about the W&N colour fastness for a couple of years... I will come back on it from time to time - hopefully without much to report! 

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