Gamblin Artists Oil Colors

If you are looking for a good artist grade oil colors in a reasonable price range there are many on the market for you. One of those I could recommend that fit that criteria are Gamblin artists oil colors. Gamblin is an oil paint supply company founded in the 1980s’, home-grown in Portland, run by artists for artists.  Gamblin paints and solvents are known as gentler, less toxic versions of traditional oil paints.   Owner Robert Gamblin and his wife, Catherine Kumlin, are both painters.

I wouldn’t call Gamblin oil colors top of the rank artist grade paints but  Gamblin is a solid brand. What makes this paint a good choice for may is that it is widely available so you can always manage to find it at a good price. Gamblin paints are slightly soft so this could be a big problem if you want to create thick sticky impasto passages. I would say these are good enough for serious artists and excellent for students since these are artist grade oil colors at a very affordable price.

The thing that really separates Gamblin oil colors apart from its competitors is the commitment the company shows to the health and safety of the customers. At Gamblins’ they do not use lead in their white and Naples Yellow oil colors, which makes them a good choice for artists with health conditions. They have a line of solvent-free mediums based on safflower oil and soy alkyd resin instead of mineral spirits. 

Appearance

If you are looking for a good artist grade oil colors in a reasonable price range there are many on the market for you. One of those I could recommend that fit that criteria are Gamblin artists oil colors.

Gamblin is an oil paint supply company founded in the 1980s’, home-grown in Portland, run by artists for artists.  Gamblin paints and solvents are known as gentler, less toxic versions of traditional oil paints.   

Owner Robert Gamblin and his wife, Catherine Kumlin, are both painters.

I wouldn’t call Gamblin oil colors top of the rank artist grade paints but  Gamblin is a solid brand. What makes this paint a good choice for may is that it is widely available so you can always manage to find it at a good price.

Gamblin paints are slightly soft so this could be a big problem if you want to create thick sticky impasto passages. I would say these are good enough for serious artists and excellent for students since these are artist grade oil colors at a very affordable price.

The thing that really separates Gamblin oil colors apart from its competitors is the commitment the company shows to the health and safety of the customers.

At Gamblins’ they do not use lead in their white and Naples Yellow oil colors, which makes them a good choice for artists with health conditions.

They have a line of solvent-free mediums based on safflower oil and soy alkyd resin instead of mineral spirits. 

Performance

 Solid oil color great for its none or less toxic properties. In my opinion not thick and creamy enough but that might be good enough for some painters depending on the style and technique.

I would say these are great for students or beginners since the price is really affordable considering these are artist grade paints much richer in pigments than student grade ones.

They have a little bit limited choice of colours but that can be easily solved since they are great to mix with Winsor and Newton Artist Oil colors that are in similar quality and price range.

Lightfastness of  Gamblin Artists Oil Colors is very good allowing you to create long lasting museum worth works of art without the fear of color changing its properties.

Cons

• Color marked on the tube very often does not match what you get in the tube
• Tubes and caps are not of the best quality
• Limited choice of colors

Overall Opinion

These definitely would not be on top of my list but as I said they are great for those who are just getting acquainted with oil painting and are always a much better choice than any student grade oil colors and are also solid and reliable brand of colors.

 Gamblin Artist’s Oil Paints are completely non-toxic when used as recommended. Which makes them ideal for painters who have allergies and issues with some of the ingredients of oil colors.

Most of the paints are made with alkali-refined linseed oil as a binder, which creates a strong, flexible paint film and yellows significantly less than cold press linseed oil.

For some of the colors they use safflower oil as a binder. Both of these oils are vegetable oils and are completely non-toxic.

Handmade of carefully chosen top quality pigments and yet not overpriced these really make a good choice for those with a limited budget or simply those who don’t want to spend too much and still want to get solid artist grade oil colors. 

If you, on the other hand, want to go one step further and spend a bit more I can recommend several in my opinion much better oil color brands as Old Holland Classic oil colors or Williamsburg Handmade oil colors but those are really top of the rank in oil color industry and if you are just a student or a beginner you dont really need to spend as much because these can be really pricey.

If you have any questions regarding the subject or need any help I will be more than happy to answer them if you were to just leave them below in the comment section.