Materials Checklist for Oil Painting Classes

Here is a checklist for the basic materials you will need for oil painting. Easels, boards, tables and chairs are all provided in the studio.

I have recommended a brand in most cases, but of course there are many alternatives at different prices. Please get in touch if you have any questions.

The references below are to catalogue numbers at Great Art, www.greatart.co.uk. They deliver for free over about £35 but the courier can be a bit haphazard, so if there's less than a week to go between your order and the course starting it may be wise to visit the shops: Jacksons (in Putney) and Cass Art (on Ken High Street) both offer good prices and their own ranges of paints. Further afield are Cowling and Wilcox, Atlantis, Cornelissen, Green and Stone, and AP Fitzpatrick.

Increasingly you can order art supplies on Amazon, Ebay, etc.

Paints - essential selection

NB these are traditional oil paints. The recent alternative “water based oil paints” are a technological marvel, but so far the colours and handling have been disappointing.

Titanium White: Daler Rowney Georgian 75ml

Burnt Umber: Winsor and Newton Artist Colours 37ml

Raw Umber: Winsor and Newton Artist Colours 37ml

French Ultramarine: Winton 37ml

Cerulean Blue Hue: Winton 37ml

Cadmium Lemon Yellow: Daler Rowney Georgian 38ml (preferable to the W&N or Cass Art own brand version).

Yellow Ochre: Daler Rowney Georgian 38ml

Alizarin Crimson: Winsor and Newton Artist Colours 37ml

Cadmium Red / Winsor Red: Winsor Red 37ml

Mediums

Odourless “turps”: Winsor & Newton Sansodor (250ml), or Jackson’s Shellsol (500ml)

Linseed oil: Winsor & Newton 250ml. (Get Liquin if you have any allergy etc, to linseed oil.)

Dammar Varnish: Schminke 60ml

Liquin: (Winsor and Newton one-pot alternative to linseed oil and dammar varnish)

Brushes

Set of flat hog brushes: JAX set of 6 flat brushes code 22946

Set of round hog brushes: JAX set of 6 round brushes code 22949

At least one larger flat brush i.e. 2cm wide. (there are a couple in the JAX flat brush set)

Supports

Canvases or canvas boards To start off with, you could get three or four 30x40cm “Basic” canvases (from Great Art) or similar size, plus a couple of boards of similar size. The "I Love Art" range at Great Art has the student options.

Pad of "canvas paper" - for oil or acrylic for oil sketches. All art shops and online.

Other Essentials

A book of disposable palettes - for oils or acrylics. In spite of their name, one advantage of these sheets is actually that they can be kept for reference. Canson tear off palettes 29.7cmx42cm code 12433. The "I Love Art" range at Great Art has the student options.

Palette knives -also called “painting knives” Gerstaecker Painting Knife code 23900021 x 2. The "I Love Art" range at Great Art has the student options .

Dippers: Double dipper code 23080 (or dinky hotel jam jars)

Clingfilm: from supermarket. For saving your palettes and the paints on them.

Kitchen roll: from supermarket. Indispensable now that rags are forbidden!

Sketchpad (and 2b or 3b pencil): Gerstaecker no.2 or no.5 A3 size

Canvas carriers (these work with pairs of stretched canvases of the same size): Stretched canvas carrier code 23045

Work clothes, or at least an apron.

Glass jars with tops: bring four or five from your kitchen - one large enough to stand brushes in (no top needed for that)