Blockx
ARTIST QUALITY OIL PAINTS - BLOCKX
This small family-owned company has been making artist quality oil paints since 1865. Jacques Blockx, a brilliant early chemist, was sought out by French and Belgian artists for his advice on pigments and as a response, commenced manufacture of his selection of oil paints. The brand is synonymous with the highest of quality where no compromise is made in their manufacture, either in the cost of pigments or the time for manufacture, for they are still made today on the same slow moving stone three-roll mills that have been used for a century.
Amongst the most ardent supporters of this paint have been Rene Magritte and Paul Signac, and of recent times, the technical painting master, Salvador Dali. The concept is that the pigment is not just the colour, but the way it paints irrespective of the pigment and its concentration. The colours have been ground only in cold pressed poppy oil which is around six times the cost of cold pressed linseed oil. Difficult pigments are put through the three-roll mill up to five times to ensure perfect wetting and fluidity with the maximum quantity of pure pigments without a trace of fillers. Many of the colours are unique to Blockx and are a tribute to the vision of the original Jacques Blockx.
Note that Blockx do not make any range other than professional quality. In 1918 the factory employed 14 staff, today they employ only 8, ensuring a semi-handmade quality opposed to mass production paints. Surprisingly, these paints are in the same price bracket as mass produced paints.
Blockx Whites
Perhaps the Blockx range is best known for their whites, as they are regarded as the best in the world. The mixed whites are made from a special ratio of zinc and lead and have been a favourite, along with the Flake White, for portrait painters. The cool Zinc White is more transparent than the intense Titanium White.
ARTIST QUALITY WATERCOLOUR - BLOCKX
Unlike any other brand of watercolour paint, Blockx traditional recipe has been evolved around a pure clover honey mixed with a small amount of glycerin. The honey acts to disperse the pigment better in water, especially in thin washes, whilst the glycerin slows the drying. This unique combination has for decades given European artists the advantage of high workability in the wet, especially when placing one light veil over another.
SOFT PASTEL SETS - BLOCKX
Selection of thick and highly pigmented soft pastels (12x65mm) in a range of 204 colours. Incorporating most of the Blockx pigment colours as well as the newer shades of Pyrrolo reds and Indanthrene Blue. The 40 basic colours range from dense to light (five groups of shade: No. 1, pure pigment to No 5, lightest).
