The Campaign for Cadmium

Unless you have been locked in a studio cupboard for the past few weeks you must be aware of the imminent threat of an outright ban on cadmium by the ECHA (European Chemical Agency). There have been many articles including a great piece int he July Issue of Artist and Illustrator, written by Michael Craine, the MD of Spectrum Paint. In it he lays out the reasons why the ban is under consideration, and the rather startling implications for artists if it goes ahead.

The proposal is not aimed at artists directly, but we will be affected by it to a considerable degree. Whether you paint in watercolour, oil or acrylic, a ban on cadmium-based pigments will have a serious impact on your colour palette. I don't use cadmium reds as often but I use both Cadmium Yellow and Lemon all the time (those landscape greens don't mix themselves) and from long experience I know that other yellows don't have the intensity, light-fastness and pigment strength I need.

Artists have been caught up in an environmental issue to do with cadmium from spent batteries in landfill, leaching into and contaminating groundwater. If the cadmium ban goes ahead, it will have a considerable impact on your favourite art materials shop. You won;t be able to get round it by buying raw pigment for making your own colours - production will just stop and cadmium colours in all forms would be removed from sale.

The European artists' colours association (CEPE) is the body that represents artists' paint manufacturers in Europe, and members include Spectrum, Winsor and Newton and Dale-Rowney amongst others. The experience of artists will help them to present an informed contribution to the debate.

To help them to understand how artists dispose of their used paint from brushes and how mush is actually wasted, CEPE woudl like to hear from painters (whether they use oil, acrylic or watercolour) how much they value the cadmium colours in their palette; how much they use, and how they dispose of the residues; given the cost of cadmium colours, most artists try not to water any at all if they can help it. Even to the extent of splitting and scraping out the tubes for the last dregs!

To have your say, you can go to:

www.echa.europa.eu/restrictions-under-consideration

or

www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/cadmium

You only have a few weeks to make a submission; the ECHA consultation ends on the 19th September; then deliberations start, and the ban could be in place within two years.

Let Pegasus Art know your thoughts on the topic by commenting below. Do you use cadmium colours? Are there any products out there for you which deliver the same intensity?

Cobra Water Mixable Oils for true painting freedom!

Imagine the joy of painting anywhere with no need for lugging around solvents! Cobra Water Mixable Oils are artist-quality oil paints allowing you the freedom to paint indoors or outdoors, with the same feel as painting with traditional oil paints - but with only the need to mix with water.

As an oil painter who loves working outside - in most weathers except drenching rain - I am finally relieved to see that Spring seems to be on its way. Good news, but for one thing. I have a perennial problem; solvents.

Loading up my ageing car with screw-top jars of solvents makes me uneasy. Transporting them across fields in my painting kit, hoping they don't leak, complicates my painting process. Acrylic painters are probably reading with a righteous glow as all they really need is a big pot of water and away they go!

In recent years, oil painters have had that option too with the development of water-mixable oils. As a dyed-in-the-wool traditional oil painter, I have to say that I found them a bit odd. Generally the texture wasn't the same, they didn't 'behave' like oil paint should. The colour was limited; in fact acrylics were much more versatile.

However, now I have the best of both worlds. I have been given a set of the new range of Cobra water-mixable oils to try out from Royal Talens, the makers of Rembrandt oils... and they are really good!

There are 70 high pigment quality colours in the 40ml tube range, and 30 colours in 150ml tubes. They are a true oil paint but as you work you wash your brushes out in water. And when you're back in the studio? Warm soapy water cleans everything up as good as new. These new Cobra Oils are very competitively priced for paint of such pigment quality in 4 series - starting at £4.40 for series 1*.

Whatever your painting style there is a Cobra medium to enhance your work, including Cobra paint medium equivalent to linseed oil, Cobra glaze medium and a colourless impasto medium which adds body but softens intensity of colour.

I am reallly looking forward to getting out into the countryside and trying them out, armed with my paints and a big bottle of water. Sky studies here I come!

*Series numbers explained. 
Good 'artist quality' paints, whether acrylic, oil or watercolour, are priced in series with Series 1 (or A) being the cheapest and higher series rising in price as the series number - or letter - goes up. This is because some ingredients are more expensive to obtain or to process and the series number reflects this. In general, Earth colours tend to be cheaper, (Series 1) and cadmium and cobalt colours are at the top end of the price range with high series numbers (5,6 or higher).