M. Graham Watercolor
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Honey Prevents Mold
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M. Graham watercolors are brilliant, highly pigmented and suitable for all traditional techniques with beautiful, even washes and no hard outlines. Made with exceptional amounts of pigment in an old fashioned binding medium of pure gum arabic and natural blackberry honey. Now available in 70 colors.
As an essential ingredient in M. Graham's binding medium, honey contributes to moistness for smooth, easily controlled applications, increased pigment concentrations and freedom from reliance on preservatives. Because of the honey medium, M. Graham's colors resist hardening on the palette, or in the tube. It dilutes easily, often after months of disuse. Richer, More Vibrant Color In order to make truly beautiful color you must load as much pigment as possible into the paint paste. More pigment makes the color more brilliant. More vibrant. It provides a vitality that can’t be achieved by manufacturers who get by with less. 
Artists' Watercolor 10 Color Set
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M. Graham gets periodic emails about mold promotion in watercolor palettes because of the use of honey. Actually, the reality is the opposite. Honey is not an odd thing to find in watercolors as they all use some form of sugar in the binder. Honey is just better because it draws moisture from the air keeping the color moist on the palette and in the tube.
Mold spores are everywhere, on every surface in your environment. A main growth factor is relative humidity which if over 70% almost makes mold growth inevitable. Other factors that will contribute to mold growth are warm temperatures, stagnant air, and darkness (like a closed palette with a soggy sponge). If you use brands of watercolor paint that requires these circumstances to remain moist enough to be used, this is probably the problem. M Graham watercolors can be left in open air, year around and just a spritz of water and they are like fresh squeezed. They just do not dry out like other brands. Mold is made up of tiny colonies of microscopic spores that feed off dead matter. It creates a layer of slime over its “food” including water-laden solutions containing sugar like the syrups used in some brands of watercolor. Honey instead, is a saturated sugar with low water properties. Simply put, it is the nature of water to equalize saturation from low concentration to high or vice versa (like lower moisture honey pulling water from the air with a higher moisture content). So essentially what happens with mold, is that the very concentrated sugar of honey sucks the water out of the moist mold, which effectively kills the mold by dehydration. Another antimicrobial effect of honey is the generation of low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and since honey is made from plants, it may have additional properties from the plants the bees visited, including phytochemical antimicrobials. In fact, common table honey has been used to treat wounds for centuries. Many believe that honey is at least as effective as leading OTC salves for preventing infection and promotion of healing cuts and scrapes. So, does honey promote mold in watercolors? No, just the opposite. Honey has been used extensively throughout the history of art as an ingredient in water base colors of all types. With a history of usage dating back to a time when artists’ were almost entirely dependent upon the materials provided by the natural world, honey has a great deal to offer today’s watercolorist. The combined flight of thousands of bees add up to seven million miles or 300 times around the earth to produce just one pound of honey. The bee travels more than three miles in search of flowers. |
M. Graham Watercolor 5 color sets
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M. Graham & Co. Landscape 0.5 oz (15 ml) Artists' Watercolor 5 Color Set
From Montana to Maine, the new Landscape set is the plein air artist's choice. Five color set includes: Big Sky (cerulean blue), Foliage Green (sap green), Tree Bark Brown (burnt umber), Afternoon Shadow (dioxazine purple) and Sunrise Yellow (yellow ochre). |
M. Graham & Co. Basic 0.5 oz (15 ml) Artists' Watercolor 5 Color Set
Set includes Ultramarine Blue, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Sap Green, Burnt Sienna and Azo Yellow. |
M. Graham & Co. Cityscape 0.5 oz (15 ml) Artists' Watercolor 5 Color Set
The perfect travel set for the urban artist. Capture the city vibe with Subway Gray (Sepia), Taxi Cab Yellow (Hansa Yellow Deep), Brick Red (Burnt Sienna), Asphalt Gray (Paynes Gray) and Stoplight Red (Pyrrol Red). |
M. Graham & Co. Marinescape 0.5 oz (15 ml) Artists' Watercolor 5 Color Set
The perfect companion to the City and Landscape sets. Set features five colors: Open Water Blue (ultramarine blue), Spinnaker Orange (azo orange), Marine Blue (prussian blue), Portside Red (permanent alizarin crimson) and Sunset Gold (raw sienna). |
M. Graham & Co. Jewel Tone 0.5 oz (15 ml) Artists' Watercolor 5 Color Set
Set includes Limited Edition color Celtic Green, along with Hansa Yellow, Anthraquinone Blue, Cobalt Violet and Maroon Perylene. |
M. Graham & Co. Shades of Summer 0.5 oz (15 ml) Artists' Watercolor 5 Color Set
Set includes Limited Edition color Highland Green along with Bismuth Yellow, Cobalt Teal, Permanent Green Pale and Scarlet Pyrrol. |
M. Graham & Co. Cobalt Mix 0.5 oz (15 ml) Artists' Watercolor 5 Color Set
Set includes Limited Edition Tartan Blue along with Cobalt Violet, Cobalt Blue, Cobalt Teal and Cobalt Green. |
M. Graham & Co. Quinacridone 0.5 oz (15 ml) Artists' Watercolor 5 Color Set
A unique set for today's watercolorist. The Quintet is made up of Quinacridone Red, Rose, Violet, Rust and Nickel Quinacridone Gold. |