How Permanent are Today’s Watercolors?

Occasionally this question comes up from a potential collector concerning the longevity of a watercolor. In short, an easy answer is to just simply reply “This painting will outlast either of us and our children”, and that usually suffices. Out of my 24 years of painting full time with professional grade watercolors, I have yet to see any traces of fading.

Oyster Dredges in the Snow

Exciting News

Eric’s painting “Oyster Dredges in the Snow” (above) has been accepted in the Transparent Watercolor Society of America’s 32nd National Exhibition in Bloomington, MN. His painting was one of 85 chosen out of over 900 entries. Eric is a signature member of TWSA.

Eric's watercolor workshops in 2009 have been added to the website.

As Eric moves toward a subject matter close to home, look on his website for new paintings of local motifs: Willapa Bay, Oysterville woodland scenes, and Nahcotta Port. Astoria street scenes are always a favorite.

Eric will be conducting a workshop in northern Italy this June. The scenery promises to be spectacular along the shores of Lake Garda. Eric is looking forward to spending time in this area of the country he has not seen before.

Willapa Bay Sunrise

How Permanent are Today’s Watercolors? (continued)

However, today’s pigments represent great advancements in color fastness (permanence) as a result of advancements in the automotive and plastics industry. Many of these same pigments are used in the a variety of mediums: watercolor and oil, acrylic, pastel, etc.

To be even more explicit, I once asked a representative of a major watercolor manufacturer to give me some specifics in longevity of the finest watercolors available today. His reply was “we feel confident with permanent color fastness to 100 years with normal lighting conditions, with indefinite time period beyond that.” That sounds good to me!

Yet we watercolorists still need to educate a largely ignorant public (and to some degree curators and framers) on the permanence of our product.

Today’s watercolors are a strong durable product; my experience has been that UV Museum glass can be a nice extra, but not necessary.