A Very “Green” Grey

Every year, Gamblin holds a Torrit Grey Painting Competition. The deadline for this year has been extended to October 1st, 2011. This is a link to the 2010 competition winners. and you can find the rules and guidelines here.

I can’t wait to see this year’s Torrit Grey paintings!

Every now and then, while reading up on paints I would notice a “torrit grey” joke or comment. Now, I have used Payne’s grey, but I hadn’t heard of Torrit Grey. Tonight, I noticed a link on the Gablin website called “Torrit Grey” — I was intrigued. I found out the mystery behind the color:

“Every spring, Gamblin Artists Colors collects a wealth of pigments from our Torit® Air Filtration system. We filter the air around the areas where we handle dry pigments so that our workers are not exposed to pigment dust. Rather than sending any of our high quality, expensive pigments into the landfill, Gamblin paint makers recycle them into “Gamblin Torrit Grey”.

“Pigment dust should not go into the earth, water or landfill, but into paint,” says Robert Gamblin.

Gamblin Torrit Grey on CopperThe mix of pigments is different every year, so Torrit Grey is always unique and will never be repeated. Torrit Grey tends to have a greenish tinge because of the great strength of the Phthalo Green pigment, which is a dark bluish green. Torrit Grey varies from a medium dove grey to a dark earthy grey.

We are now dating the tubes, so artists can collect them from year to year and enjoy the unique qualities of each edition. Whatever you create with these popular limited edition colors is solely up to you and your imagination.”