Rosa Gallery watercolours are designed and produced in Ukraine. A range of 60 beautifully vibrant colours made with finely ground artist’ pigments and organic gum Arabic. Made in collaboration with professional artists, these paints are made with consideration of the needs of the contemporary watercolourist. If you are starting out in watercolours or looking for an alternative to White Nights – then look no further!

Rosa Gallery

Rosa is a leading Ukrainian manufacturer of fine art materials with 26 years of experience in art production. They regularly collaborate with professional artists worldwide and this resulted in the creation of their Fine Art Watercolour Paints in 2018.

Until now it has been difficult to get hold of Rosa watercolour paints in the UK and so we have added a selection of sets as well as individual pans and tubes to our range.

Rosa Gallery Fine Art Watercolour paints

Rosa Gallery Fine Art Watercolour paints offer a range of high quality artists’ colours in a broad spectrum of hues. Half of the 60 colour range are single pigment which makes creating clear, bright mixes far easier. There are 14 granulating colours and a great selection of transparent, semi and fully opaque pigments. Each colour is rigorously tested to ensure intense, brilliant colour with optimal transparency.

Because the paints are made with premium finely ground organic & inorganic pigments the paint flows across the paper very easily.

The vast majority of the paints are classed as the highest level of lightfastness so if you are displaying your work you should not expect any fading.

Testing the Modern 21 Set

Delivered in a metal tin

So the first thing to say is that the set is contained within a durable, metal palette which is a bonus at this price point. It’s a great quality tin with no sharp edges. The metal tin contains two mixing surfaces and a thumb ring, making it ideal for watercolour painting en plein air as well as in the studio. The wells are deep too so this reduces the risk of cross-colour contamination.

Unwrapping tips

When unboxing your Rosa watercolours I suggest that you hold the pan on the short side between your thumb and index finger and then remove the paper wrapper. The wrapper is perforated down the short side. You will be left with a small sticker at either end of the pan which tells you the pigment code, lightfastness rating and transparency on one end and the colour name and product code on the other end. It is really helpful to keep these for when you need to replace a pan.

The colours included in the Modern 21 set

The Modern 21 set includes 12 single pigment colours, 2 granulating colours and 18 colours rated as the highest lightfastness. The set contains a great combination of primaries, secondaries and earth colours including a cool and warm versions of colours. There is a colour swatch sheet included in the set so you have a handy reference when painting.

My favourite colours were the two granulating pigments Colbalt Turquoise & Ultramarine and the Quinacridone Gold. The two blues granulated well leaving a lovely texture. The Quinacridone Gold has a warm glow ideal for glazing over other colours.

The pans are slightly tacky to the touch and wet up very quickly. I give my palette a spritz with water before I start and because they’re full pans I can quickly make enough mix for a wash. Once dry I found the colours re-wet easily and the non-staining colours lifted well.

Mixing secondary colours

I then played around in my sketchbook mixing some secondary colours. A wide variety of greens can be mixed which is ideal for landscapes as well as some lovely oranges and purples.

I also swatched the Rosa colours alongside the colours contained in the 36 set of White Nights. Whilst there wasn’t an exact match for some of the colours, you can see many of the colours are a very close match. The Rosa set also contains Quinacridone Gold which is not made by White Nights and is normally only seen in more expensive watercolour ranges.

Testing wet in wet

I was interested to see how Rosa paints performed wet in wet. As you can see from the images above the paint dispersed well creating some fantastic textural interest. The paints also combined nicely when two colours were swatched side by side.

Overall I am impressed by the quality of these paints

I can’t wait to try out some of the other colours too (I have my eye on the Coral and Aureoline which is made using a non fugitive pigment). The price of these paints is also fantastic considering they have such a high pigment ratio. If you are a beginner I would seriously consider buying the set of 12. You will be paying slightly more than other starter kits but you are getting full pans and a lot of pigment.

If you are a White Nights fan, and I know there are many out there, you will not be disappointed with Rosa paints. With the same high pigment load, large pan size and low price Rosa are very similar to White Nights. The good news is that the Rosa pans will fit into your White Nights palette too. Don’t miss your chance to grab our remaining White Nights stock. 10% of the sale proceeds will be donated to the World Vision Ukrainian Charity.

Rosa Gallery watercolours are available to buy in sets, individual full pans (2.5ml) and 10ml tubes. Plus the empty tins are also available so that you can add to your stash!