After sticking with the existing range for over 20 years Maimeri have done a massive revamp of their popular Maimeriblu artist quality watercolours. Maimeri have always been highly rated with Handprint comparing them favourably with Daniel Smith and Winsor & Newton. I used them initially when I was able to buy them from a company at Swindon at very favourable prices. Unfortunately they were then discontinued for 'lack of demand'. They are available from several of the mail order specialists although never really pushed by them. The main criticism I had was that the pricing policy was skewed with series 1 and 2 very reasonable but series 3 and 4 less so. Some things were difficult to fathom. For example Permanent Magenta, the rose form of PV19 was in series 1, but Rose Lake, the red form of PV19, was in series 3. Golden Lake, supposedly Quinacridone Gold PO49, said PV49 on the tube, and was replaced with PY43 with the tube details unaltered.. The original paint was poor nothing like as good as the Winsor & Newton version. When I contacted them I received no reply.
The new 12ml Tubes
What has changed? First of all there are now 90 colours instead of 72. Oddly they have dropped the 15ml tube size and replaced it with a 12ml one. Half pans are also available as before. Also EVERY paint is now a single pigment. This is unique amongst current ranges. It's difficult to define exactly what is new as they seem to have changed (reformulated?) the names of some of the existing paints, and changed the pigments, so my interpretation may be incorrect in some cases. For example Dragons Blood is now PBr25, previously a two pigment mix. A few of the colours as now constituted. Cerulean Sky Blue (PB35), Green-Gold (PY129), Golden Yellow (PY183), Gamboge Hue (PY139), Potters Pink (PR233), Permanent Violet Blue (PV23), Naples Yellow Medium (PBr24), Sap Green (PG17), Cobalt Blue Green (PB36), Hookers Green (PG17), Paynes Grey (PrN/A?), Magenta Quinacridone (PR202), Quinacridone Lake (PV19), Yellow Vanadium (PY184) and so on. Many of these pigments were in the original range under different names! Some of the names of paints in the existing range are the same but the pigments have changed. Confusing isn't it. On the Maimeri site the colour chart gives pigment details so that's something as some makers seem to be backsliding in this respect or making it even harder to find them.
Have I any gripes? Yes indeed pricing. There are still four series and taking Jacksons discounted 12ml tube prices we get £8.00 Series 1, £9.20 Series 2 , £10.40 Series 3 and £12.80 Series 4. Bear in mind this is 20% less paint than in the previous 15ml tubes. If you ramp this up to what 15ml would be for Series 1 £10.00 and £11.50 for Series 2. This is a substantial price hike. I honestly don't know how much more us amateurs are expected to pay. I've no doubt these paints will be good because Maimeri are but .......
When on the Maimeri site I tried to look up Venezia, the budget make, to see if anything was happening there. I could find nothing referring to it despite them talking about two colour ranges. Venezia have 36 colours, many very good, in 15ml tubes. I wonder if anything is going to happen there.
Have I any gripes? Yes indeed pricing. There are still four series and taking Jacksons discounted 12ml tube prices we get £8.00 Series 1, £9.20 Series 2 , £10.40 Series 3 and £12.80 Series 4. Bear in mind this is 20% less paint than in the previous 15ml tubes. If you ramp this up to what 15ml would be for Series 1 £10.00 and £11.50 for Series 2. This is a substantial price hike. I honestly don't know how much more us amateurs are expected to pay. I've no doubt these paints will be good because Maimeri are but .......
When on the Maimeri site I tried to look up Venezia, the budget make, to see if anything was happening there. I could find nothing referring to it despite them talking about two colour ranges. Venezia have 36 colours, many very good, in 15ml tubes. I wonder if anything is going to happen there.
