Dear Artist:
Titanium White was the first artists’ oil color I made by hand in the summer of 1978. White is the heart of any oil painting line so I perfected my white first. Making oil colors comes naturally to me because I am a cook. My grandfather, a produce broker and Italian cook, taught me how to recognize quality ingredients and how to transform them into something delicious. I found making oil colors is like making a fine marinara or pesto. My goal has always been to make “luscious” artists colors—pigment-rich and buttery. Rather than copy other styles of paintmaking, I developed my own.

For over twenty years, we have carefully built a contemporary paintmaking factory that respects the traditions of the past. The Smithsonian Institution put my skills to the test in 1988, when conservation scientists commissioned me to make 150 antique oil colors from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. All of the materials—pigments and binders—arrived one day at the Gamblin color factory, but there was no formulae. The paintmakers of the Old Masters were not necessarily literate. Their skills were in their hands. I formulated all the colors then made the paints. Many colors had to be made by hand grinding. This made me realize the Old Masters’ paints were thin and weak, inferior by our standards today. Being exposed to many toxic pigments made me appreciate the mineral and modern pigments with no or low toxicity available to painters today. Gamblin Artists Colors Co. makes the “Tools of Contemporary Masters.” - Robert Gamblin