Gamblin Artists Colors: American Oil Paint Craftsmanship at Its Finest

Gamblin Artists Colors is one of America's most respected independent oil paint manufacturers, handcrafting professional-grade oil paints, mediums, and solvents in Portland, Oregon since 1980. Founded by Robert Gamblin, a painter and paint maker who studied historical pigment formulations before creating his own company, Gamblin has built a reputation for producing oil paints that combine traditional craftsmanship with a genuine commitment to artist health and studio safety.

What distinguishes Gamblin in the crowded oil paint market is the company's dual focus on performance and safety. Their flagship solvent, Gamsol, is the only odorless mineral spirit refined to the level where it meets food-grade standards—a breakthrough that has allowed oil painters worldwide to work in enclosed studios, apartments, and shared spaces without the health risks associated with traditional turpentine and mineral spirits. This single product has arguably done more to make oil painting accessible and safe than any other innovation in the medium.

The Paint Range

Artists Grade Oil Colors

Gamblin's Artists Grade oil paints feature high pigment loads in refined linseed oil, producing colors with excellent tinting strength, permanence, and buttery handling characteristics. The range includes 80+ colors spanning both traditional pigments and modern alternatives, with each color formulated for optimal balance between pigment concentration and working consistency.

1980 Oil Colors

The 1980 line offers a more affordable entry point to quality oil painting—using the same pigments as the Artists Grade but at slightly lower concentrations. Named for the company's founding year, these paints provide genuine quality at prices accessible to students and developing painters.

FastMatte Alkyd Oil Colors

FastMatte alkyd colors dry in 18-24 hours rather than the days required by traditional oils, while maintaining the workability and color quality of conventional oil paint. This rapid drying time makes them ideal for painters who work in layers, teach workshops, or need to transport paintings quickly.

Mediums and Gamsol

Gamblin's medium and solvent range is as carefully formulated as their paints. Galkyd mediums increase flow and accelerate drying. Neo Megilp recreates the handling qualities of historical painting mediums. Gamsol provides safe, effective thinning and brush cleaning. Each product is designed to work within a coherent system that gives painters precise control over their materials.

Gamsol: The Safety Revolution

Gamsol deserves particular emphasis because it has fundamentally changed how and where oil painters can work. Traditional turpentine and mineral spirits produce fumes that cause headaches, respiratory irritation, and long-term health risks in enclosed spaces. Gamsol is refined to remove 99.5% of the aromatic hydrocarbons that produce these harmful effects, creating an odorless mineral spirit that is safe for use in home studios, apartments, classrooms, and shared workspaces where traditional solvents would be unacceptable. The fact that Gamsol meets food-grade purity standards—while still performing effectively as a paint thinner and brush cleaner—represents a genuine breakthrough in studio safety.

The Medium System

Gamblin's medium system is designed to give painters complete control over paint handling characteristics. Galkyd accelerates drying time while increasing flow and leveling—ideal for painters who work in glazing techniques or need faster layer building. Galkyd Lite provides similar drying acceleration with less gloss, suitable for painters who prefer a matte or satin finish. Neo Megilp recreates the luminous, buttery handling quality of historical mediums like Maroger medium, without the toxic lead content that made historical formulations dangerous. Cold Wax Medium enables the rich, textured, encaustic-like surface effects that have become increasingly popular in contemporary painting.

Each medium is formulated to be fully compatible with the others and with Gamblin's paints, creating a coherent system where painters can mix and match products with confidence that they will cure properly and maintain archival stability.

Colour Education and Transparency

Gamblin demonstrates an unusual commitment to colour education and material transparency. The company publishes detailed information about the pigments used in every color—including Color Index names, lightfastness ratings, opacity/transparency characteristics, and tinting strength data. This transparency enables painters to make informed decisions about their palettes based on actual pigment properties rather than marketing names.

The company's website features extensive educational resources covering colour theory, pigment history, painting techniques, studio safety, and material science. These resources reflect Robert Gamblin's background as both a painter and a paint maker—someone who understands that informed artists make better work and better material choices. The educational content positions Gamblin not just as a paint seller but as a knowledge resource for the oil painting community.

The Portland Studio and Manufacturing

Gamblin's Portland, Oregon manufacturing facility is where every tube of paint is formulated, ground, and filled by hand. The company's paint makers use traditional triple-roll mills to grind pigments in oil—the same fundamental process used by paint manufacturers for centuries—but with modern quality control that ensures consistency across every batch. This combination of handcraft methods and systematic quality control produces paints with the nuanced handling characteristics that machine-only manufacturing cannot replicate.

Visitors to Portland can arrange studio tours that provide a fascinating look at the paint-making process—from raw pigment to finished tube. These tours demonstrate the care, expertise, and physical craft that go into every Gamblin product, reinforcing the company's identity as an artisan manufacturer rather than an industrial paint producer.

Environmental Responsibility

Gamblin has implemented environmental practices that reflect the company's broader commitment to responsible manufacturing. Gamsol recycling programs, waste reduction initiatives, and responsible sourcing of raw materials demonstrate that quality paint manufacturing and environmental consciousness are not mutually exclusive. For artists who consider the environmental impact of their material choices, Gamblin's commitment to responsible practices adds another dimension of value.

The Bottom Line

Gamblin Artists Colors represents the best of American paint manufacturing—quality ingredients, thoughtful formulation, genuine concern for artist health and environmental responsibility, comprehensive educational resources, and the kind of product knowledge that only comes from over four decades of dedicated craft. For oil painters who value performance, safety, transparency, and the assurance that their materials are made with care by people who understand painting, Gamblin is an essential and trusted brand.