Sinopia palette - Handmade Watercolor Set

A special edition assortment of natural Mediterranean tones inspired by classical drawing traditions!

Ideal for painting architecture, nature studies, figure drawing, travel and urban sketching. This timeless palette is by nature beautiful and harmonic and includes foundational colors for painting and drawing. These historical ochres, siennas, umbers and neutrals compose a limited palette often used for preparatory sketches and value studies.

This collection takes its name from Sinopia, an ancient red-brown earth pigment imported to Europe from Cappadocia through the port of Sinop, a Greek colony on the Black Sea. Sinopia was famously used in the Renaissance to make the preparatory drawing for frescoes directly onto the wall. These drawings became simply known as Sinopie.

Featuring a new Burnt sienna made from natural earth pigment from the historical quarry near Arcidosso, Monte Amiata. This color has a gentle granulation, excellent lightfastness and rich vibrancy. Wonderful in blends.

Though the historical quarry, known as ‘la sega,’ has long since closed, we now have special access to the stocks of this exceptional raw sienna, which is calcinated in house by @wallaceseymour. It is exciting to bring this pigment back for artists once again!

Handmade watercolor set of twelve individually wrapped half pans in a metal tin with two mixing surfaces, a color chart printed on Arches watercolor paper, and an artist grade pocket brush by Tintoretto size 6. The Sinopa handmade watercolor set is packaged with original marbled paper by a Florentine artisan workshop and comes inside an elegant gift box.

Titanium White (PW6) - Excellent lightfastness

Gold ochre (PY43) - Excellent lightfastness

Raw Sienna (PY43) - Excellent lightfastness

Burnt Sienna, Mt. Amiata (PBr7) - Excellent lightfastness

Venetian red (PR102) - Excellent lightfastness

Morellone (PR101) - Excellent lightfastness

Ultramarine Blue dark (PB29) - Excellent lightfastness

Verdaccio (PBr7, PBk11) - Excellent lightfastness

Green umber (PBr8) - Excellent lightfastness

Burnt Umber brownish (PBr8) - Excellent lightfastness

Burnt Umber dark (PBr7) - Excellent lightfastness

Roman black earth (PBk11) - Excellent lightfastness

Made by hand in Assisi, our watercolors are crafted according to a traditional recipe of raw pigments, gum arabic, local honey, rosemary essential oil and a wetting agent. This artisanal process creates a very pigmented and luminous paint that activates beautifully when wet.

A. Gallo Colors are 100% handmade. Pans may contain small imperfections like tiny bubbles and minor blemishes. This does not affect the quality of the paint and is a sign of the human touch that goes into making each and every unique pan!

Half pans present a choking hazard and are not intended for use by children. Please also keep out of reach of pets. A. Gallo Colors are all cadmium, cobalt, lead and mercury free.