Gamblin Conservation Colors
Gamblin Conservation Colors
Gamblin Conservation Colors are stable, reversible and suitable for use with a wide array of painting styles and techniques. Their innovative low molecular weight resin binder makes Gamblin Conservation Colors safer to use.
Conservation scientists’ criteria for a new kind of conservation color included stability, safety of use, quality of manufacture, optical and working properties. Robert Gamblin has formulated artists’ materials for 20 years. In 1994, he joined the research team after conservation scientists observed that making paints by hand-grinding resulted in a somewhat coarse, glossy paint which lacked the smooth paste consistency of commercially prepared paints. The collaborative goal was to develop a new kind of conservation color from lightfast, permanent materials with enhanced working and aging properties.
Conservation colors made from a low molecular weight resin binder have better optical properties and better handling properties than paints based on polymeric resin. Aldehyde resins are a more appropriate binder than some other low molecular weight resins because they are slightly polar and wet pigments more easily. The accelerated age testing was done at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Once the binder was accepted, the team agreed that the new paints should be fairly lean and slightly matte. Viscosity and sheen can be easily altered by adding binder.
Gamblin Artist Colors Co. produced four trial batches of paint to establish correct pigment/binder ratio for smooth brushing and easy reducibility with medium. Conservators in North America and England participated in testing. During the initial test phase the new Gamblin paints were used for retouching on over one hundred treatments from Trecento Italian to 20th century paintings. Gamblin Conservation Colors have proven useful for all techniques of inpainting including glazing. The paints have good covering power and little change in color when dry.
Complete Set Please note that we sell a Complete Set of 44 colors that contains all of the colors listed. When you purchase the Complete Set you save 10% off the cost of buying the 44 colors separately.
Color Chart
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