And Another `Newsflash'.

Just received an e-mail from Great Art www.greatart.co.uk/ with a number of offers on watercolour paints. Pebeo, a budget make with 28 colours, has been reduced to 96p a tube! I've never tried this newish one so cannot speak for it.

Rui alerted me today to the very cheap prices on offer for Winsor & Newton from Great Art. I have received an e-mail from them but this wasn't highlighted, so you may need to go into watercolour paints and find W & N. On all pans, and tubes, whatever the size, discounts range from 51% - 55%. This is incredibly cheap but there is no indication as to how long this offer will last. It may I suspect be only very temporary before a price hike, witness Jacksons new catalogue just received, where Series 1 14ml are £7.70p. These sort of prices were introduced at the beginning of 2012 but (presumably) customer resistance or hot competition meant that lower prices than these have been on offer from one source or another all year. I think they'll have a similar difficulty in 2013. In any event before you buy check the website prices and compare.

Jacksons latest 2012/2013 catalogue www.jacksonsart.co.uk/

I haven't studied this in detail yet to see what price movements have taken place. On first glance the things that probably interest the watercolour artist the most, paints and papers, don`t appear to have moved much if at all. This after only a cursory glance so don't hold me to it! The Jacksons catalogue is distributed far and wide so copies will be arriving with Leisure Painter and The Artist as well as those to existing buyers. Note added : I have checked Jacksons prices and and all the leading artists quality makes remain unchanged as do the watercolour papers, both sheets and blocks, from Waterford, Arches, Fabriano et al. After the price hikes at the beginning of the year this is welcome BUT still look for special offers.