Jessi
Have you heard of the stunning handmade Italian paint brand, A Gallo? Come with me, down the handmade paint rabbit hole…
When I started watercolor painting, I didn’t know what brands I’d like, and was excited to explore. However, when I was gifted an A Gallo set, I was mystified by how to work with these paints. Everything I painted came out opaque and just so dark. So I put them away and didn’t touch them, until one day I tried them again, and…it was a revelation! I found out how to unlock the colors. The secret was simple. These paints are simply so pigmented, that they need a more water and less paint than the other paints I’ve tried!
I now find A Gallo a joy to use. They rewet easily and have a very smooth consistency that I love the brush feel. But the best part of these paints is the stunning colors! Bright as jewels, rich in pigment, and with flow like liquid gold across the paper. colors light up on the page, displaying a range of great clarity, and luminous transparent colors, while also offering wonderful earth tones.
The website offers a wealth of information on each color, often including some history, which is so interesting! You can also read about the history of the company.
An Italian artist named Alina Gallo founded the company. The watercolors are made by hand, of a traditional mix of pigment, gum Arabic, honey, and rosemary essential oil. This causes the paint to have a sweet herbal smell that can be quite surprising!
One nice thing about this brand is that they are eco friendly. It’s nice not to have to worry about safety concerns such as how to dispose of the paint water. I can relax, knowing it’s all non toxic and quite safe.
However, A Gallo paints are expensive. There’s no getting around that. The website has sales regularly, and usually offers 15% off of select items, so that can help, but it’s still pricey. In the US, you can buy them from the official website, or from Jackson’s US.
The paints come in half pans, full pans, or in 10ml tubes. I prefer the pans, because I’ve had an issue with a few of the tubes becoming very hard and shriveling out of the palette upon drying. I own the signature tube set, and alizarin crimson hue, ultramarine turquoise, and burnt umber Cyprus, not in the set, all withered when dried.
The range has about 125 pan colors, 70 of which are available in tubes also. Many of the colors are mixed of several different pigments, but there are also single pigment options, however you’ll have to work to find which ones are single pigments versus mixed. I tend to prefer single pigment colors, but A Gallo has some stunning blends.
They are pigment dense, and take getting used to. But with proper water quantity they absolutely glow! I love these paints, and think they are very special. They’re in my top few paint brands of all time, and I would absolutely purchase again, even at the price point.
Hot takes and favorite colors
My favorite colors:
I tried to make my swatches all fancy, then of course tore the paper getting off the tape. Shrugs, sighs…this is what happens when swatching on non cotton paper.
- Quinacridone magenta (PR202): I love the Quinacridone colors generally, and find A Gallos to be especially luxurious. The color is smooth and bright, with a subtle granulation that I find stunning. The magenta is bright and bold.
- Quinacridone violet (PV55): This violet is so luscious, it’s rich and deep and reminds me of perfect grapes on a late summer morning. Fresh and tasting of sunlight and growing things.
- Ultramarine Blue (PB29): My favorite ultramarine blue ever. It absolutely glows. Again the granulation is subtle yet present.
- Indigo, genuine (NB1): This color is everything! Except lightfast. The range of value is very large, and it ranges from an inky almost black, down through the lightest of faded denim blues. I absolutely love it, and truly wish it were lightfast.
Honorable mentions: lemon permanent, pyrolle orange, olive green deep, and harbor blue. All stunning colors in their own right.
Least favorite:
- PG23, gummy and so weak. Girl, please. I don’t think so.
- Aquamarine. Kind of love it, but also, looks way too much like a Smurf?
Hanna
My take on A Gallo is a little less enthusiastic. Do not get me wrong, I really like them! I do agree that they are pigment-dense, with a pleasant smooth brush-feel, but I do not think that they are the most intense paints I own (I still think that is M Graham). I also agree that they are one of the brands that benefits from a bit of on-palette mixing and dilution (but I think most of the honey paints are like that).
Overall, I find them medium-flowing (they do flow, but they are no Qor) and medium-staining. And often very textured! They have a lot of granulating paints, including some very nice mixes. All without any cobalts or cadmiums!
My favourites include:
Zirconium Blue (PB71): As a lover of granulation, I am very sad that true Manganese Blue is very toxic and no longer available, but PB71 (which I have from Kremer, as well) seems like a great substitute. It granulates more than any cerulean I have tried, and (unlike Cobalt Teal) reads as “sky blue” to me. I like a granulating sky sometimes; I think it gives the impression of heat or tense atmosphere.
Lapis Lazuli: Many brands offer this, but it is usually very disappointing, more grey than blue and low-value even in masstone. The A Gallo one is strong enough to be a (pricy) Ultramarine substitute. I love the granulation and, actually, the slightly muted but still BLUE colour (I rarely use unmuted Ultramarine). I need to buy more for when I feel fancy and expensive.
Notturno (PB29, PR101, PV19): One of those cult “warm purply shadow” colours like Daniel Smith’s Moonglow, but IMO nicer. Look at that granulation!
Burnt Umber Cyprus (PBr7): Here to support Jessie’s claims that A Gallo has lovely earths. Look at that amazing granulating brown! It is exactly what I want from a brown earth. Raw Sienna Badia is also great, if you like bright granulating raw siennas.
Unfavourites: I do have two! I bought Slate (PW6) thinking it would be a bit like the grey Titanium some brands offer, which I use for concrete and rocks sometimes, but I dislike using it as it is lighter and weaker than I want, even in mixes. And my Transparent Red Oxide (PR101) pan is just a disaster. Within a year it got weird and crumbly, and now even when I presoak all I get from it is a pale peach masstone with hard rocky crumbs in it.
Small note: the paints have a strong herbal smell, even after years of use (they use Rosemary as a fungicide). I like it, but others have claimed it annoys them or makes them hungry.