Winsor & Newton were the first colour makers to publish a complete list of colours with details of their composition and permanence, establishing a rigorous testing process since 1832. Innovative modern colours are a nod to the legacy scientific innovation and an ongoing dialogue between sciences and the arts first begun by William Winsor and Henry Newton at 38 Rathbone Place. We met up with Pierre Sanchez to discuss some of the changes in the science of fine art and graphic materials that have taken place since then and what the future holds.

How long have you worked developing Winsor & Newton products? What is your role?

I have been working at Colart for 6 years, as a Research and Development Chemist.

Over the years can you tell us a little about some of the changes you have seen in the manufacture of art materials? How much of this entails research and development of new materials, and ways to make existing and new materials?

The main shift faced by the industry in recent times is the implementation of much stricter regulations, with a long and fast-growing list of banned molecules to increase health and safety of everyone.

As formulators and manufacturers, our focus is to replace the dangerous materials with safer alternatives while ensuring performance remains intact. This background work is meant to be the less noticeable to the customer, and it requires constant attention and vigilance from us.

As of late, there of course has been a growing emphasis on using materials that are more energy-efficient or bio-sourced for better sustainability. These concerns are combined.

About 80% of our work in research is focused on finding alternative materials that are safer, more bio-sourced, or having a lower carbon footprint. We are always vigilant and constantly updating our processes to meet these new criteria while maintaining the upmost level of quality and reliability for the artists.

What are the key concerns with sustainability today? How sentient is Colart for these concerns?

We are keenly aware of these concerns, as a business and as every individual making the business.

Changing course with heavy ships like businesses and society takes time, but the right shifts are already underway.

The first key concern is regarding the future of petrol and its associated chemistry. Since its associated industrial revolution, the entire market of modern coatings is in balance. An entire world of chemical industry based on it has begun to reinvent itself stirring away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sourcing. It will take some time to complete the shift, but it has begun, and chemists will have work to continue reinventing everything good petrochemistry has brought, but in safer forms for the environment. At our level, we see these shifts beginning in the raw materials supplies with companies shifting towards greener goals and discarding greenwashing for true green chemistry innovation.

The second key concern is regarding other natural resources that are vital or in risk of future tension, like clean water. If most chemical compounds still come from petrochemistry industries, other sources of our raw materials include water, minerals, and plant-based compounds. All of them are being looked at with a sustainable prism nowadays, and our suppliers are evaluated on that regard just like our customers are judging us as well. We’re looking to reduce our needs and wastes or course, and then to shift gradually toward the most sustainable sources of materials.

The third key concern is the consumption of energy and carbon dioxide output of our industry. We’re looking on reducing our emissions improving our sourcing, our logistics and our choices of materials.

Manufacturing and shipping will always have some mechanical needs and we’re thriving to optimise them. We’re also learning to calculate exhaustive life-cycle analysis to avoid some perspective shortcomings. Of course, these three key concerns are intertwined and are all priorities, balanced with the wellbeing of our people and the financial wellbeing of our company.

Without revealing too much, all our projects and research are now integrating these aspects.

Also thankfully, in the world of artists materials many of the oldest recipes and mediums have kept enough nobility to survive the advent of modernity.

With some gentle irony, these oldest products in our house (from pre-industrial era) like oil colours and watercolours are also the most sustainable products we have today, in more ways than one.

Regarding the future of modern paintings such as Acrylics, we have some good ideas already, but we’ll keep them secret while working on making them bright.

Pigments are a major component of artists' paints. Although synthetic pigments have been in existence since the 19th c. (and even further back in some instances), there are associations attached to the word synthetic. Could you tell us a bit about the reliability, advantages and sustainability of synthetic pigments?

Since the pre-industrial time, synthetic materials were rightfully seen as an improvement in quality and durability compared to natural materials. They were most often replacing fugitive, reactive or rightful harmful or toxic compounds. Synthetic pigments were giant leaps in quality, strength, safety, solidity, and reliability against natural materials that each came with their shortcomings, with fugacity above all. Historically pigment-wise, synthetic meant higher quality and reliability than natural, by a huge gap.

No artist needs to be concern of their lead white turning black or their tar background rising to the surface and shrouding everything, or their verdaccio peach skins turning livid any longer. We’ve been thriving to increase long-term reliability and safety with cost-effectiveness in these ways since the time of French Ultramarine.

Over time, and post-war, the perception of synthetic materials has changed, and they can easily now be perceived as a negative attribute. This unfortunate chemophobia risks being counter-productive in some aspects of sustainability.

It is important to avoid reverting to lower quality natural materials and instead maintain the high quality of synthetic pigments. We want to avoid repeating mistakes from the past simply because the synthetic word has lost its gleam and it’s easy to get carried away with the modern superstitions of what natural can mean.

The future of synthetic materials lies not in compromising them, but in their synthesis from renewable and low-carbon sources, rather than petroleum-based chemistry. We have already begun exploring this future, and while we cannot reveal specific plans, we have found some promising avenues to pursue.

What do you think the future holds for art materials? What are the major challenges we face?

I believe the major challenges will be for the suppliers of art materials more than the artists. One of our main drives is to keep or increase the quality and availability of the materials that artists have been used to, for centuries already. There will remain a good balance between tradition and modernity in the world of art materials. As a maker we will continue to do our best to improve our economical balance and our carbon footprint balance as the two will go together more and more.

I would say there is clear awareness of the sustainability challenges ahead, roughly summarised as the previous key points, and confidence in facing all of them. Neither us nor artists will have to sacrifice anything as we already know where to shift our focus as manufacturers. The alternatives to petroleum-based chemistry progresses may have been hindered by its convenience over the last century, but the future is already opening up with possibilities; from biomimetic engineering to name just one. If the history of chemistry has taught us one thing, it’s that serendipity can bring great discoveries, so there will be interesting surprises along the way of this new evolution of chemical industries.

We are confident that these changes will be successfully navigated, including the transition to more sustainable manufacturing of synthetic pigments. We will do so while preserving long lasting and reliable traditional techniques, keeping the availability and quality of pigments and products throughout.

Keep faith. Keep painting.