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Titanium White No. 1 is the most brilliant white in my range, suitable for crisp, cool, opaque, light shades. If you want a powerful mixer that lightens , then this is it. Although not subtle, this white is the most suitable for a bright, fresh palette. It forms a strong and durable film when cured. PW6 is an inorganic pigment.

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Organic – Copper Phthalocyanine Green probably ties with Phthalo Blue and Deep Purple as the strongest pigment in the range. Atomic Tint Power, add it with great care! Ferocious acidy blue-green hues and blue undertones come to prominence in mixes with yellows. In common with the Blue, it displays, on curing and when used virtually unmixed, a certain tendency to show surface bronzing. The ruination of many a student’s work, use with great caution! Always check in a good light as it can silently destroy a painting till seen in a true light when it is too late! This colour, otherwise known as the embalmer, has been the ruination of many a student’s work as it tends to invisibly leach into all other colours on the palette till one stands back and sees in a good light what has happened, caution!

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Organic – An absolutely beautiful warm red with a very unique nature when mixed with or glazed over whites it produces a truly shocking shade of pink.

Added after much demand, this very permanent popular pigment capable of making completely exciting pinks with a vivid undertone Michael is providing artists with Quinacridone Rose. This is a modern organic colour perfect for vivid still life painting of flowers, fruit or in portrait paintings. This unique colour makes very exotic pinks that may appeal to the Plein Air painter for skies, fields, flowers and sunlight to name a few. Michael has always been a great fan of quinacridone colours for the use in his own paintings and find them to add a difference that cannot be achieved through other pigments, it gives me that burst of colour he enjoys!

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Neutral Grey N7 (No. 140) is designed to be to assist artists with tonal values. A lean colour with a relatively low oil content, Neutral Grey N7 is useful as a base ground colour with high covering power.  For the more experienced artist, Neutral Grey N7 is a workhorse grey that can be tinted into.

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Organic – After many years Michael Harding was able to find a variety of this pigment that had a reasonable drying speed. It may interest some of you that Michael has PV 23 samples which he made in the late 1990s that still have not dried!! Deep Purple has tremendous use in all aspects of painting but should be used with caution by new artists as it has a tint power only matched by the Phthalocyanines. However, please do not be daunted by this description as when combined with whites it produces remarkable shades. Also, its slight addition to transparent yellows, such as Indian Yellow, can result in some extraordinary results that one can only describe as dark yellow which as a concept can be a little strange.

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Inorganic – This name was given by English manufacturers to smalt, a cobalt-based pigment that was used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a less expensive alternative to Lapis Lazuli. Unfortunately, smalt tends to fade into a light grey, as some Veronese skies demonstrate. But the introduction of Ultramarine Blue made the original smalt formula obsolete, and so Michael offers a completely reliable substitute blend that evokes the aerial effects of the great Venetian decorators.

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Organic – Bright Yellow Lake is an arylide organic lake pigment. It has an incredibly high oil content and transparency, with an enormous tint power that shoots through mixes with a pervasive range of bottle green undertones. Beginners should handle this paint with care when adding it to other paints. It can heighten the Phthalo Lakes without making them opaque, and when it is made itself opaque with the addition of white, the results are almost luminous.

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Inorganic – Red Umber is a synthetic iron oxide. I decided to make this variant shade of Burnt Umber after my observations of 16th and 17th  century paintings suggested this pigment had lighter and redder characteristics than those it assumed when manufactured in animal bladders. Raw Umber is calcinated to make the pigment, and the amount of Manganese Dioxide mixed with the Iron Oxide determines the range of undertones; my formulation is much warmer than is usual.

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Diarylide Yellow is a synthetic organic Lake that replaces uric acid, which was made by warming the urine of Indian cows fed on mango leaves. This modern, organic equivalent matches the beauty of the original colour, used for centuries in Mughal miniatures, but it has greater tint power and reliability. When brushed thinly over hued backgrounds, it presents a vibrant and warm mustard yellow. Please note that our Indian Yellow is not made with animal waste.

Organic, Natural Earth – An impure, amorphous Carbon in Calcium Phosphate, Ivory Black is no longer made from burnt ivory scraps but from charred animal bones. It is denser in shade and cooler than Lamp Black, with stronger tint power. Ivory Black, the blackest of the blacks, is the most frequently used black in the range.