Review: M Graham Watercolour

M. Graham & Co. is a company from USA that makes paint. M Graham is a brand well known for the quality of their paint.

There's a total of 70 colours for watercolour and these are available in 15ml tubes. While they don't have as many colours compared to other brands, they do have the essential primary and convenient colours.

The watercolour chart (PDF) can be downloaded from their website.

The tubes are sold individually and in sets.

• Basic Set, Set of 5 Colors - Ultramarine Blue, Sap Green, Azo Yellow, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and Burnt Sienna
• Cobalt Mix Limited Edition Set, Set of 5 colors - Cobalt Violet, Cobalt Blue, Cobalt Teal, Cobalt Green, and Cerulean Blue Deep
• Intermediate Set of 10 - Azo Yellow, Azo Orange, Burnt Sienna, Dioxazine Purple, Nickel Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Green, Pyrrol Red, Sap Green, and Ultramarine Blue
• Jewel Tone Set - Anthraquinone Blue, Cobalt Violet, Hansa Yellow, Maroon, and Permanent Green Light
• Landscape Set - Burnt Umber, Cerulean Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Sap Green, and Yellow Ochre
• Marinescape Set - Azo Orange, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Prussian Blue, Raw Sienna, and Ultramarine Blue
• Quinacridone - Quinacridone Red, Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridone Violet, Quinacridone Rust, and Nickel Quinacridone
• Desert Southwest - Quinacridone Rust, Yellow Ochre, Indian yellow, Mineral Violet, Turquoise
• New England - Naphthol Red, Cadmium Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, Hookers Green
• Pacific Northwest - Dioxazine Purple, Yellow Ochre, Anthraquinone Blue, Neutral Tint, Sap Green
• Shades of Summer - Highland Green, Bismuth Yellow, Cobalt Teal, Permanent Green Pale and Scarlet Pyrrol

My review will be based on the 10-colour set. My friend Don Low has also reviewed this set on my blog before.

Getting the 5-colour set is a great way to sample the colours, and it's cheaper than buying the colours individually. The colour selection for the 5 and 10-colour set is versatile for mixing. The 10-colour set is perhaps missing a Phthalo Blue though.

M Graham watercolours are made with Northwest blackberry honey, gum arabic, glycerine and pigments. The important thing to note is the paints have honey which helps absorb moisture to keep the paint moist and fluid. This also means these paints will not dry completely if you squeeze them out into pans. That's why the paints are not available in pans or on colour dot charts.

If you want to paint plein air or do some urban sketching with these paints, they have to be brought around in tubes, or in air-tight palette boxes.

The watercolour paints are richly pigmented which means you just need to use a bit of paint and you can get really intense colours. A bit of paint goes a long way.

They are really easy to paint with. The colours lay down nicely and blend beautifully.

When choosing colours make sure to see the pigments used. The colour naming system is different from other companies like Daniel Smith, Winsor & Newton, Schmincke, etc. Looking at the pigment code is the way to ensure you're buying the correct colour.

Here's a video of me painting with M Graham watercolour. Starts at 06:09.

The quality of M Graham watercolour is definitely top notch. It's a brand I can recommend easily.

Availability

M Graham watercolour is available from Dick Blick Art Materials (USA) and Jackson's Art (UK).