Winsor & Newton make five types of oil paint. The ranges each feature different working properties. Throughout the Winsor & Newton Oil ranges the colours have been formulated with a high proportion of single pigments for brilliance of colour and clean colour mixing.
Artists’ Oil Colour
The Winsor & Newton Artists’ Oil Colour range is their best quality & has the largest array of colours, featuring 120 different shades! It has a rich, buttery consistency.
Winton Oil Colour
The Winsor & Newton Winton Oil student-quality paints are an affordable alternative. It has a stiff, uniform consistency, because the formula has fillers and driers that even out all the differences you get from each pigment. Some artists find that they aren’t bothered by a bit weaker paint for the great savings and the ease of use they get from the uniformity.
Griffin Alkyd Oil Colour
The fast drying Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd oil colours are great for painting a first layer – take a break to make a cup of tea and when you return it’s dry enough to continue working. More fluid than traditional oil colour, Griffin dries faster and with greater transparency.
Artisan Water-mixable Oil Colour
The Winsor & Newton Artisan Water-mixable oil colours are perfect for artists who want to avoid using solvents. Looks and works like conventional oil colour and can be mixed with regular oil colour as well, the more regular oil colour you add the less water-mixable it behaves.
Oil Bars
The Winsor & Newton Oil Bars are real oil paint formed into fat sticks you can draw with, no brushes needed!
The bars are intermixable with oil colour and mediums and can be dipped in solvent as you draw.
Oil Painting Mediums
Winsor & Newton oil painting mediums and solvents are used to modify the oil colours. Depending on which you choose you can increase or decrease drying time and change the thickness of the paint.
Mediums include the five thicknesses of Liquin (Fine Detail, Original, Light Gel, Oleopasto or Impasto), linseed, safflower and poppy oils, and Painting Medium.
Solvents include English Distilled Turpentine or Sansoder Low-Odour Solvent.
Click on the underlined link to go to the current offers on the Winsor & Newton Oil colours on the Jackson’s Art Supplies website.
Postage on orders shipped standard to mainland UK addresses is free for orders of £39.
Hi, I’m new to oil paints and want to start
painting landscapes. I’m thinking about
either getting winton or griffin oil paints.
Which one overall is the best in your
opinion? I was going to go for winton as they
offer 200ml tubes and have a slightly
cheaper price, but is the price difference
worth it? Thank you
Hi Aaron
Welcome to oil painting!
It’s not really possible to talk about which is best, only which is best for what you want to do. (Is a heavy, polar-weight coat better than a light jacket – it depends if it is Summer or Winter.)
If you mean that you will be painting landscapes en plein air, then the alkyd oils might be useful as they are faster drying, a thin layer can be touch dry in an hour or so. Some artists who paint landscapes outdoors block in the painting (the underpainting) with alkyds and then use regular oils for the rest of the painting.
If you don’t need them to be fast drying then the Winton is less expensive for similar quality.
The alkyd paint is a bit more transparent and has a bit softer/more fluid texture than the Winton.
If you are intending on building up layers, where you let each layer get touch-dry before adding more to your painting, then the alkyd paint should only be used for the bottom layers as the top layers need to be slower drying for the whole painting not to crack a few months later as it finishes drying.
Hi, have been on the trail of Oil Paint sticks, and had hoped to give the W&N Oil bars a go, but see they have been discontinued. The notes on the site suggest new products may have been developed – are there any oil bars or sticks in the pipeline? Thanks
Hi Deb
I don’t think Winsor & Newton are planning on making any new oil paint sticks.
But we have oil sticks by two very good brands that you might want to try.
Sennelier Oil Sticks come in 55 colours. R&F Pigment Sticks come in 103 colours.
They are both excellent quality, with the R&F having the softer texture of the two. They both offer some selection sets as well.