Winsor & Newton 'Artisan' Water-Mixable Oil Paints

 I just finished my first water-based oil painting, in which I used Winsor & Newton 'Artisan' water-mixable oil paints.  I decided to provide some feedback on my experience with them since I almost exclusively use traditional oil paints.

I was pleasantly surprised by the very similar buttery quality these paints have to the W & N artists' oils.  My palette is shown below.  They mixed very well and I used two different products with which to thin them: 'Artisan Thinner' and 'Artisan Linseed Oil'.  It's important to note that it is essential you use products that are compatible with the water-based paint formulation, as it is indeed different from traditional oils.  Therefore, I only used products labeled 'Artisan' on them so I wouldn't run into problems.

My brushes rinsed easily and completely in a tub of warm water, which I changed out for clean water as needed.  

These paints clean up beautifully, almost effortlessly, compared to regular oil paints, so cleaning my brushes, and my hands! was an absolute breeze!  There is also no familiar solvent-type or chemical smell to deal with so that is a plus as well.

I did my underpainting en plein aire, and someone snapped a reference photo for me.

My palette.

I use warm water to help expedite cleaning my brushes.

Although you can use either Artisan Linseeed Oil or Thinner to thin your paints, I preferred the linseed.  The paint properties differ, as seen below, when one or the other is used to add flow to the paint.  Linseed oil also slows dry time, just as with traditional oils.

l to r:  Ultramarine blue thinned with 'Artisan' linseed oil and 'Artisan' thinner.  The use of the thinner seems to brighten the paint in addition to thinning it.

Near finished, this painting illustrates the brightness and intensity that Winsor & Newton's water mixables are capable of.  I was really happy to have tried these and will paint more with them in the future.

Happy Painting!

- Ronna