Meet the 12 Hero Colours of Winsor & Newton Artists' Oil Colour
Twelve tubes. Warm and cool. Earths, historic blues and a few colours you may never have painted with before.
Winsor & Newton's in-house artists and scientists carefully curated these 12 hero colours from a range of more than 135. They best demonstrate the exceptional colour strength of the range, forming the foundation of both warm and cool palettes.
Below, you'll find the story behind each colour, how it handles and Chloe S Moncrieff's notes on painting with it.
What makes Artists' Oil Colour different
Science is rooted in Winsor & Newton's DNA. Founded by both an artist and a chemist, Winsor & Newton has spent over a century refining the formulations behind its modern-day colours.
Each colour in the Artists' Oil Colour range is meticulously formulated and tested by a team of chemists in their laboratories. Using only the highest-grade pigments, with a high pigment load in every colour, they provide exceptional strength, clarity and permanence. A carefully curated range of more than 135 colours, made mainly from single pigments, provides cleaner mixing and beautiful, luminous tertiary colours.
That precision offers artists something acrylics can't: time. Rather than drying in minutes, colours remain workable, allowing the artist freedom, edges to soften and techniques like wet-on-wet to flourish.
Ultramarine Ash
Character: Transparent, delicate granulation, lightfast
Informed by the archival beauty of early lapis-based pigments, Ultramarine Ash's delicate tones make it a timeless colour. Made with the finest pigments with excellent lightfastness, the subtle hints in this transparent paint enjoy a delicate granulation due to its carefully formulated composition of pigments.
It offers a more delicate shift than white, providing a lighter, transparent tint to all other colours.
“In my practice, I find Ultramarine Ash suits muted tones, night and watery scenes.”
Mineral Grey
- Character: Semi-transparent, glazing, tinting and toning
Mineral Grey, once made from the ashes of lapis lazuli, is a beautiful addition to the palette. Its semi-transparent nature not only allows the layers underneath to seep through, but makes it suitable for glazing.
This carefully formulated mid grey tone was created to retain the transparency of its predecessor, and offers a softer shift than blacks for tinting and toning.
“From atmospheric scenes in need of a slate azure tinge, to vigorous splashes to convey emotion, it encapsulates a cool poetry.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Smalt (Dumont's Blue)
Character: Transparent, single pigment, violet undertone
Smalt has a story. Throughout history, colourmakers have struggled to make this colour both lightfast and permanent. In 1890, Winsor & Newton's Scientific Director, J. Scott Taylor, preserved a refined version by labelling a small jar “Best Quality Smalt.” Over a century later, in 2006, Senior Research Chemist Peter Waldron rediscovered the jar and used it to create the closest modern equivalent to the original 1890 colour.
The beauty of Smalt is in its stunning transparent violet undertone, making it distinct from other deep blues. It's a single pigment and, for the first time, formulated in oil.
“With Titanium White, it makes the most stunning lavender, I’d apply this combination to florid swirls and shapes, racing skies even.”
Royal Blue
Character: Opaque, strong tinting, core palette blue
Known as a true blue or a primary blue. The “royal” in Royal Blue comes from England, where the hue was said to have been created for a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte (1744–1818). It possesses a strong mass tone and powerful tinting strength when mixed with other colours and white.
“It interacts generously with other colours, capable of both holding its own and receding into the wings on a surface.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Ultramarine Pink
Character: Transparent, single pigment, glazing
From the ultramarine family of blues, reds and violets, Ultramarine Pink stands out as one of its most unusual expressions. It's a soft deep pink with a transparent violet bias undertone.
A stunning single pigment, it offers extensive colour mixing opportunities and is beautiful for glazing.
“Think dusky markings on the canvas. In my practice, this ends up in gestural pink explosions in the sky and shimmering reflections or shadows.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Permanent Carmine
Character: Transparent, deep crimson, glazing
Once derived from the dried, crushed bodies of the female cochineal insect, this transparent crimson red has been a core colour in the historical palette, featured in the compositions of masters over the centuries for contrast and depth.
This permanent, lightfast carmine red has an intense deep crimson transparency with a warm purple undertone. Used on its own, it's striking and intense.
“Glistening rich lipstick-red, Carmine oil paint is dramatic.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Transparent Orange
Character: Transparent, single pigment, glazing
Orange has not featured extensively in the palette historically. It was often created by mixing yellows and reds, or came in toxic varieties made from vermilion, orpiment or chrome, until the arrival of cadmium, which is opaque.
This unique single-pigment Transparent Orange adds versatility to the palette, with a deep, strong transparent undertone offering beautiful opportunities for colour mixing. It has excellent lightfastness and permanence, and it's ideal for glazing.
“When applied on white gesso, the colour is a bewitching blood orange, it almost blushes.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Indian Yellow
Character: Transparent, glazing, luminous
This stunning colour, once created from the pigment made by the urine of cows fed on mango leaves and water, is another example of Winsor & Newton embracing synthetic, more sustainable alternatives in colour making.
Expect a rich mass tone with a vibrant undertone, and great body and depth of tone. It's lightfast, transparent and ideal for glazing.
“For me, this radiant paint is the ultimate for a burst of luminescence; a little goes a long way.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Gold Ochre
Character: Opaque, single pigment, earth colour
Gold Ochre is one of the oldest yellows. This ancient earth colour is found throughout the world in many shades, in hues from yellow to brown.
This bright gold formulation is a warm, earthy, opaque single pigment, and a strong addition to this constant in the artist's palette.
“With strong opacity, it carries a deep, autumnal warmth that anchors a composition.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Burnt Sienna
Character: Transparent, glazing, earth colour
Burnt Sienna is a rich, deep earth pigment originally sourced near Siena in Italy. Naturally a transparent form of ochre, it has a warm orange-russet tone and a remarkable clarity, making it one of the most versatile and widely used earth colours across painting techniques.
Extracted directly from the landscape, its colour could historically vary widely. Winsor & Newton drew on their archives and expertise to refine and standardise this historic pigment for modern use. You get a rich red mass tone and a brilliant, bright transparent undertone that's beautiful for glazing.
“I love the hints of chestnut conker, cooked caramel, this warm oil paint contrasts well with muted evergreens.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Cinnabar Green
Character: Semi-opaque, bright mid green, mixing
This bright mid green was once a toxic green made from chrome yellow. It featured in the Winsor & Newton tint books until the 1930s and has now been recreated with a non-toxic alternative.
It's semi-opaque, lightfast and permanent, with excellent mixing properties that offer tinting and toning potential with other primary and secondary colours.
“The colour carries a gem-like depth, verdant, lucid, and radiant, bringing an explosion of freshness to the canvas.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Warm White
Character: Opaque, low tinting strength, mixes well
Winsor & Newton have a history of creating beautiful white formulations. Warm White possesses the warmth and qualities of its toxic predecessors, the lead whites known as flake white or Cremnitz white, which were valued for their ease of handling, resilience and warmth.
It's an opaque, lightfast and permanent warm white that mixes very well with other pigments, reducing their colours softly due to its low tinting strength.
“A peaceful white with a peachy warmth, Warm White is a gentler alternative to Titanium White.”
— Chloe S Moncrieff
Mixes to try first
Smalt + Titanium White: a stunning lavender for florid swirls, shapes and racing skies.
Smalt + Transparent Orange: single-pigment complementaries that mix into stunning achromatic greys.
Permanent Carmine + a touch of Prussian Blue + Warm White: a moody blue-violet, poignant for shadows.
Permanent Carmine + umbers, ochres and Titanium White: combinations Chloe suggests for mixing.
Cinnabar Green + Titanium White or the yellows: companions Chloe mixes with for skies, volcanic sketches and fleshy thickets.
Warm White in place of Titanium White: softer highlights and colours that sit together while keeping their lucent qualities.
Build your palette
Pick a few colours from the warm side and a few from the cool, add Warm White, and see where the mixes take you. All 12 hero colours are available at Opus.
Explore Winsor & Newton Artists' Oil Colour
Colour stories and artist quotes courtesy of Winsor & Newton, from the 2026 Artists' Oil Colour campaign. Shared with permission.