In praise of Cotman watercolours

Winsor and Newton's Cotman range of watercolour paints has been available for several decades, and complements the well-regarded Artists' watercolour paints from the same manufacturer.  In the UK, Cotman is around a third of the price of the artists' range. One might think that Cotman paints are strictly student-grade, and unsuitable for "serious" painting -- but  some superb work can be found on the Internet, produced using Cotman paints. Indeed, W & N used to claim that these paints are made to the same standards as the artists' range, but use less expensive pigments.

The range comprises 40 colours, of which 16 (40 percent) are single pigment, 20 (50 percent) are two-pigment, and four (ten percent) are three-pigment paints. The paints are currently available as half-pans, 8 ml tubes and 21 ml tubes.

It is a little puzzling why some Internet commentators get a bit "funny" about Cotman paints. Perhaps because these paints give some ranges of artists' watercolours a good run for their money? One person even went as far as dumping their half-pans into a container of water after trying them out! (If you want to keep the plastic half-pans, the paint tablets drop out with very little effort in my experience.) I have several tubes of W & N Artists' watercolours, and I confess that I struggle to see how they are dramatically better than Cotman -- i.e., three times better on price -- but this may be down to my lack of practice?

I wonder whether the clue is in the brand name? John Sell Cotman was a nineteenth century English painter, so perhaps there is a suggestion that Cotman watercolours are best used for landscapes in cooler climates? Therefore, if you want strong, vibrant colours, then Cotman paints are not for you...

Should you be thinking about dipping your toe into the world of watercolour and your budget is constrained -- and you live in the UK -- then Cotman paints are worth considering. They are good value for money, and can be found in most high streets (all but the smallest outlets of WH Smiths, for example). The Cotman Sketcher's Pocket Box (shown on the middle right in the photograph above) makes a great starter set for a modest outlay: more of which anon...

(Disclaimer: I am in no way connected with Winsor and Newton, except as a satisfied customer!)

Starting in watercolours

I am not sure how I became interested in watercolour painting -- surely not because of the cheap paint sets in flat metal boxes that I remember as a child, which ran out of at least one useful colour in next to no time?  Nor can I attribute it to art classes in school: there seemed to be an assumption in the mid-1970s that we knew how to paint (on thin paper not far removed from newsprint, using bristle brushes having seen better days and poster paint that we mixed ourselves from powder).  Perhaps the purchase of a book on the subject in the late 1980s might have been the catalyst?  Nevertheless, it would take me at least one false start and a couple of well-intentioned might-have-beens before I actually made the effort to put brush to paper -- some 25 years later!

I hasten to add that I don't feel I have any natural talent for this sort of thing.  I have always considered my ``artistic abilities'' to be low to average, but for some reason I have a fascination with paints and painting.  My hope is that one day I shall be competent enough to produce something that I won't be embarrassed to hang in the downstairs loo!  In the meantime, I still have much to learn, and plenty of practice beckons...