Product & Application Resources

Williamsburg is not a mass-produced paint. This introductory video shows the very high level of human involvement and hand processes required to make oil colors of this quality.

The process of making paint includes running paint through a mill. This step determines "the grind", or how fine or coarse each color becomes. Each pigment reveals different characteristics at different levels of milling. Whether it is work-ability, texture or the color itself, the grind is determined by what brings out the best balance for each color.

Short video touching on the legacy of Carl Plansky as a painter and paint maker.

11 ml tubes of color plus a 37 ml tube of Titanium White make each of these four sets perfect for trying new colors or an entirely new palette from which you can mix a new range of colors. Williamsburg has one of the most extensive selection of oil colors available anywhere, and these sets can help you narrow down options and begin personalizing your palette.

Take a look behind the scenes at Williamsburg Artist Oil Colors, see our factory floor, the labor, materials, art and science that goes into every tube of paint we make.

Getting the proper pigment is just the beginning. So much of the quality of oil paint is in the grinding. Each color is ground to enhance the beauty and luminosity specific to that particular pigment. Some colors will feel slightly gritty; others extremely smooth. Our Cerulean Blue will have a beautiful velvet, light-absorbing surface with an extremely strong covering power; our Siennas will often be chunky or gritty to allow light to travel through the vehicle, exposing rich golden or mahogany undertones instead of just heavy, dull browns.

Pigments are ground in pure, premium, alkali-refined linseed oil and made in batches no larger than eight gallons at a time. This gives us total control over the product, much like the late nineteenth-century French color makers. All the materials are hand measured, and every ounce of paint is scrutinized. The paint is packed in 37 ml and 150 ml non-reactive aluminum tubes. Larger quantities of paint are packed in aluminum cans using only the purest materials.

Williamsburg Artist Oil Colors are used by the world's finest artists whose work can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MOMA in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Beaubourg in Paris.