Wallace Seymour watercolours: what makes them different?
Most watercolour painters are loyal to one or two brands they know well — Winsor & Newton, perhaps, or Schmincke, or Sennelier. Wallace Seymour is not a name that appears on most people's radar, and that is a shame, because it is arguably one of the most interesting and carefully made watercolour ranges produced anywhere in the world today. It is also one of the few ranges made in the UK by practising artists, using methods and ingredients that the mainstream industry largely abandoned decades ago.
This post explains what makes Wallace Seymour watercolours different — in terms of the ingredients used, the methods of production, the colour range, and the philosophy behind the company — and why we stock them at Craft and Canvas alongside more familiar names.
Who makes Wallace Seymour watercolours?
Wallace Seymour was founded in 2011 by Rebecca Wallace and Pip Seymour, both practising artists with over twenty years of experience in the art materials industry. The company — originally called Pip Seymour Fine Art Products — was created with a specific mission: to make the highest possible quality art materials and supply them exclusively through independent retailers, never selling direct to artists or through large chains.
This is not a large commercial operation. Wallace Seymour produces paint in small batches under its own direct control, testing each colour before it reaches retailers. Many of their pigments are sourced from original quarries — some literally dug up by the founders themselves. The result is a company that operates more like a small craftsman's workshop than a commercial paint manufacturer, and whose products reflect that approach in every detail.
The Vintage Watercolours range
The Wallace Seymour Vintage Watercolours are the range we stock at Craft and Canvas, available in tubes across three series — Series A, B, and C — reflecting the cost of the pigments used in each colour.
This range was created specifically in response to what Wallace Seymour saw as a long-term decline in the quality and availability of traditional watercolour pigments. Over the previous decade or two, many manufacturers had moved away from genuine historic pigments toward cheaper synthetic alternatives, and some pigments had disappeared from commercial paint ranges entirely.
The Vintage range counters this by using the finest available pigments — including some that are genuinely finite and irreplaceable. Manganese Blue, for example, uses genuine pigment that was last manufactured in the 1980s; Wallace Seymour acquired stock and uses it while it lasts. The Alizarin Crimson in the Vintage range is made from pigment stock also from the 1980s, and is a noticeably redder, richer shade than the Alizarin Crimson available from modern commercial supplies.
Alongside these historic pigments, the range also includes standard cadmiums and cobalts plus newer synthetic pigments like Green Gold and Quinacridone Red Gold — but all formulated to the same uncompromising standard, using the same high-grade binder.
What makes the ingredients special?
The formulation is where Wallace Seymour's approach diverges most significantly from mainstream production, and it is worth understanding in some detail.
Kordofan Gum Arabic is considered the finest grade of gum arabic available, sourced from acacia trees in the Kordofan region of Sudan. Most commercial watercolour manufacturers use lower grades of gum arabic, often blended with cheaper alternatives. Kordofan gum produces a binder that is cleaner, more transparent, and more consistent — resulting in paints that flow more freely and dry to a purer, more luminous finish.
Honey as an ingredient in watercolour has a long history — 18th and 19th century watercolour manufacturers used it as a humectant to keep colours moist and workable. Modern manufacturers largely replaced honey with glycerine, which is cheaper and easier to use at scale. Wallace Seymour use genuine Acacia honey sourced from a single estate farm in central Italy, prepared to their own specific recipe. The honey keeps the paint paste stable while retaining softness, and unlike glycerine — which is used in most modern watercolours to create a false sense of saturation — it allows the true colour of each pigment to show through without masking or distorting it.
The binding system uses only the highest grade Kordofan Gum Arabic milled to a specific recipe. The viscosity of the paint paste deliberately varies from colour to colour, because each pigment is processed according to its own specific recipe rather than forced through a uniform production process. This means that working with the Vintage range has a varied, characterful quality that reflects the individuality of each pigment.
The colour range
The Wallace Seymour Vintage Watercolour palette is notably different from mainstream commercial ranges. Where most manufacturers offer close variants of the same core palette of synthetic pigments, Wallace Seymour includes colours that are genuinely unavailable elsewhere.
The earth colours are particularly exceptional. They include pigments sourced from specific named locations — Oxford Mudstone, Oxford Bluestone Green Earth (a native English terre verte, hand-dug and hand-processed), Oxford Ochre with its strong granulation — colours that have a direct physical connection to a specific place and geology that synthetic pigments simply cannot replicate. These earths granulate in ways that are visually extraordinary, separating and settling into the valleys of the paper to create organic, textural effects that no mixed or synthetic colour can produce.
The range also includes historic pigments available from no other source — finite stocks of colours that were once standard in artists' palettes and have since largely disappeared from commercial production. For painters interested in colour history, traditional methods, or simply in having a palette with genuine individuality, this is compelling.
How do Wallace Seymour watercolours compare to Winsor & Newton?
Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolours are the benchmark against which most serious watercolour painters measure other brands — consistently made, wide colour range, well documented, and available everywhere. For many painters they are entirely sufficient.
Wallace Seymour occupies a different position. The comparison is not really between two similar products at different quality levels — it is between mainstream professional production and small-batch artisan manufacture with a fundamentally different philosophy about what watercolour paint should be.
In practical terms, experienced painters who have used both tend to describe Wallace Seymour as producing more interesting, more characterful paint — particularly in terms of granulation, flow, and the quality of dried washes. The honey-based vehicle produces a slightly different working feel from glycerine-based paints, and the traditional pigments — cadmiums, cobalts, genuine earth colours — behave in ways that are subtly but noticeably different from their synthetic equivalents.
The trade-off is range and accessibility. Winsor & Newton offer over 100 colours; the Wallace Seymour Vintage range is smaller and more focused. For a beginner or a painter working primarily in standard techniques, Winsor & Newton or Daler-Rowney are perfectly good choices. For a painter who is serious about their materials, curious about colour history and the difference pigment quality makes, or simply wants to paint with something genuinely unusual and beautifully made, Wallace Seymour is hard to look past.
Granulation — and why it matters
One quality that experienced watercolourists particularly associate with Wallace Seymour is granulation — the tendency of certain pigments to separate from the binder and settle into the texture of the paper in irregular, organic patterns rather than drying to a smooth, even wash.
Granulation is a characteristic of certain pigments, particularly traditional mineral-based colours like ultramarine, cobalt, manganese, and the earth pigments. Modern synthetic pigments tend to granulate less or not at all. Because Wallace Seymour uses a high proportion of traditional mineral pigments, granulation is more pronounced and more varied across the Vintage range than in most commercial watercolours.
For landscape painters in particular — where the irregular, organic quality of granulation can suggest textures in stone, water, foliage, and sky that no flat wash can capture — this is a significant practical advantage. The paints seem to do some of the painter's work for them, producing naturally textured, varied surfaces that look like they took effort and skill to achieve.
What Wallace Seymour watercolours do we stock at Craft and Canvas?
We stock the Wallace Seymour Vintage Watercolours in tubes across Series A, B, and C at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk. The three series reflect the cost of the pigments used — Series A covers the most accessible colours, with Series B and C including the more expensive mineral and historic pigments. Individual tubes are available so you can build your own palette selectively rather than committing to a full set.
Our team is familiar with the range and happy to discuss which colours are most useful as a starting point, how they compare to Winsor & Newton equivalents, and how to make the most of the granulating pigments.
Frequently asked questions about Wallace Seymour watercolours
Are Wallace Seymour watercolours suitable for beginners? The paints are not difficult to use — they behave like high quality watercolour and respond well to all standard techniques. The main consideration for beginners is that some of the colours and pigments are unfamiliar, and the range is smaller than mainstream brands. A beginner building confidence with a limited palette may find it simpler to start with a more familiar brand and add Wallace Seymour colours selectively as their practice develops.
Why does Wallace Seymour use honey in their watercolours? Honey acts as a humectant — it keeps the paint moist and workable and helps the pigment remain soft and responsive to water. Traditional watercolour makers used honey for exactly this reason before glycerine became the standard commercial alternative. Wallace Seymour argue that honey produces a more sympathetic paint that allows the true colour and character of each pigment to show through, rather than masking it with a synthetic additive.
What do Series A, B, and C mean? The series reflects the cost of the pigments used in each colour. Series A colours use more commonly available pigments and are the most accessible in price. Series B and C include more expensive mineral pigments, rare earth colours, and historic pigments — the cost reflects the genuine rarity and quality of the raw materials rather than any difference in formulation standard.
Are Wallace Seymour watercolours lightfast? Lightfastness varies by pigment, as it does with any watercolour. Wallace Seymour are transparent about the pigment compositions of their paints, which allows painters to assess lightfastness using standard pigment data. The genuine cadmiums, cobalts, and mineral earth pigments in the range are among the most lightfast watercolour pigments available. As with any watercolour, finished work should be framed under UV-resistant glass for long-term display.
Can Wallace Seymour watercolours be used with other brands on the same palette? Yes — they are fully compatible with all other watercolour paints and work well alongside Winsor & Newton, Daler-Rowney, and any other brand on a shared palette.
How do I use watercolour from a tube? Squeeze a small amount onto your palette and either use it immediately while wet, or allow it to dry and reactivate it later with a wet brush. You can also squeeze tube paint into empty pans to create your own palette. A little goes a very long way — start with a smaller amount than you think you need.
Shop Wallace Seymour watercolours at Craft and Canvas
We stock Wallace Seymour Vintage Watercolour tubes in Series A, B, and C at our Hebden Bridge shop and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk. If you would like to talk through which colours to start with or how the range compares to what you are already using, come in and speak to us — we are happy to help.
Craft and Canvas | 3 Carlton Street, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8ER | craftandcanvas.co.uk