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I was on vacation on Vancouver Island, and stopped at an art supply store. They had a display of a small Canadian brand of handmade watercolours – Stoneground Paint Company, so I decided to pick up a small palette to try out.
I chose a small set of six colours called the Vancouver Island Palette. I don’t see it on their website so they may not carry it regularly or may have made it exclusively for the store I visited in Nanaimo.
Stoneground uses only single pigments in their paints because it helps artists learn and know what to expect when mixing. They also don’t use fillers, extenders or preservatives, ensuring the pigments are on full display. Their binders include gum arabic and honey. The paints are all mixed by hand in small batches.
The company’s website is full of useful information. If you click on a colour, it tells you technical details like pigment number, lightfast rating and more. They also provide suggestions of how to use the colour, which is fantastic.
Watch me test and swatch Stoneground handmade watercolours on my YouTube channel.
Colours in my handmade watercolours palette
My set of six includes colours that would be useful painting landscapes on Vancouver Island – a rainy and green part of the world.
- Lemon ochre
- Mars orange
- Manganese violet
- Ultramarine blue
- Mayan indigo blue
- Hooker’s green
Swatch sheet
I put together a swatch sheet so you can see a sampling of the colours I can mix with this small set of six.
Final thoughts
The colours chosen for this palette are beautiful and appropriate for the area it’s emulating. I can mix wonderful muted colours to paint rainy, rocky landscapes.
The quality of the paint itself is wonderful. They rewet beautifully and are a delight to paint with. The colours are vibrant, even when they’re subtle. I will happily use this palette and occasionally buy other colours to add to my collection.
Word of warning – their paints are very pricey. I paid more than $60 for the set, and chose it because it was on the lower end for their palette sets. I want to support small, local businesses, and consider it a souvenir of my trip, but I would have trouble paying that price for all my watercolour paints. Good quality watercolours are always fairly expensive, so it’s not surprising that handmade ones are especially pricey.
If you’re interested in learning more about their paints, visit the Stoneground Paint Co. website.
