Ah, the warm and earthy world of DANIEL SMITH Ochre watercolors! It’s like stepping into a painting of an autumn landscape! Ochres are those charming colors that can’t quite decide if they want to be yellow, brown, or somewhere in between.

Ochre has a rich history, having been utilized for thousands of years in various fields such as art, medicine, and more. This pigment can be traced back to prehistoric cave paintings globally, including the famous Lascaux cave in France. It served as a coating for burials, like the “Red Lady of Paviland” in Wales, adorned the costumes of Pharaohs, and was even used to dye sails in Newfoundland and Labrador to protect them from the elements. Today, our Brand Ambassadors and artists use modern pigments to create unique and diverse works of watercolor art!

On Thursday, February 13th, 2025, John Cogley CEO, joined up with our Brand Ambassadors and guests over Zoom and Facebook LIVE to highlight and explore these 11 colors!

Giovanni Balzarani started by presenting his swatches and then went on to blend the ochres with various colors, creating stunning textures and shades!

Letizia shared the color comparison from the Interactive Color Map. (What an incredible tool!)

Silvia Trad played along by creating a beautiful autumn landscape! Of the ochres she said,

 “One thing I think is really nice is that these ochres are very transparent, which I think that only DANIEL SMITH has the power of having an ochre like this that won’t make the painting feel opaque.”

She also mentioned that she loves using ochres to paint old walls, urban landscapes, antique buildings etc.,

“It’s so nice! I love it. I have kind of a link to this because I went to a city in France where they have mountains with these colors. It’s amazing because the color is there and it brings everything back!” -Silvia Trad

Next, Angela Barbi enamoured our audience with her “free loose style” on hot press paper, which she says helps her to have “strong expression.”

There are always so many gasps of delight from our Zoom audience when Angela is painting! In the above painting, she added Cobalt Teal Blue and Lunar Black.

Up next is Besnik Xhemaili with his color mixing squares. He mixed colors such as Perylene Red with Fired Gold Ochre, Verona Gold Ochre with Cobalt Green, Goethite with Fuchsite Genuine, and more! Such surprising and stunning results!

“The one that really got me inspired to go further and paint is Goethite (Brown Ochre). The reason I love it is that it makes very beautiful granulation. One of the strongest that I would recommend is between these two; Italian Deep Ochre and English Red Ochre.” -Besnik

Ashley Hawkes contributed to our session by using Burgundy Red Ochre and Italian Deep Ochre to paint the fur on a very happy Dachshund! About Burgundy Red Ochre she commented,

 “I’m so excited to try a new color today! This is a new color to me. You know, we Brand Ambassadors have our Dot Cards; we have our go-to colors, but we still love exploring!”

Anna Marie Steffenson wrapped up our session by showing a gorgeous swatch card and describing how she mixed her current color palette with the Ochre colors.

“When you purchase a new color, you want to be able to play with it; including the current colors that you already have in your palette. I want to encourage you as you go through this process with your colors; you add a new color to your own pigment list and start exploring with it and just see what range of colors you can get within. Push the range that you’ve already got, because it’s a joy to add one more friend to your palette and see how it interacts and what unique characteristics you can be discovering”

This session was truly enlightening, and everyone gained valuable insights into the DANIEL SMITH Ochre family of watercolors!

Are you ready for your up close and personal conversation with John Cogley, the owner and CEO of Daniel Smith?

Zoom with us LIVE each week so you can speak directly with John and engage with fellow artists from around the world. Laugh, learn and be globally inspired!

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