Opus Resource Library
Olive Yellow: An R&F Color Story
Opus Resource Library

From our friends at R&F Paints comes the background of a unique colour found in their Pigments Stick range. Read on to understand some of the logic behind the scenes of paintmaking.

We would like to briefly touch upon one with fondness and that is the golden, awkward, beauty we call Olive Yellow. Introduced in 2016, Olive Yellow contains three pigments: Cadmium Yellow Light, Stil de Grain and Ultramarine Violet. Reminiscent of Van Gogh’s sunflower yellows, its essence finds its origin in a bright and bold Cadmium Yellow tarnished, no, complicated by the presence of earthy Stil de Grain and cool Ultramarine Violet. 


We end up with a paint going in two directions and somehow meeting in the middle in the form of a warm/cool/dirty/bright, greenish yellow.

In the testing phase we sampled out nearly thirty colors (ultimately whittled down to just twelve). Olive Yellow finished at the top of nearly every artist’s list. The words ‘must have’ were not uncommon to see amongst written responses. This frankly caught us off guard as it was a last minute add to the testing run, an afterthought you might say.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.
As always – Keep painting.

R&F Paints

Founded in 1988 by artist and paint-maker Richard Frumess, R&F Handmade Paints manufactures two unique and heavily pigmented paint lines: our classic wax-based encaustic paint and linseed-oil based Pigment Sticks®. Located in Kingston, New York, R&F is committed to producing the highest quality paints with materials meticulously sourced from around the world. 

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