Anyone - professional or amateur - who picks up a tube of Classico oil paints will find in it just what they need.

Classico fine oil colours are versatile, offering an unsurpassed price to quality ratio. These colours are produced by strict principles that yield a top quality product. They revolutionise the criteria by which a economical (rated "fine") range is judged.

They contain no waxes or thickeners, (no manufacturing shortcuts). The colour palette includes the best original natural earths and true cadmium pigments. Average pigment concentration is very high. Formulas are perfected to balance the drying times of all colours. Bright, lively colours with overall harmony in the palette, Classico colours are made with modern non-toxic, non-polluting pigments that improve lightfastness. All colours may be intermixed together in any ratio or proportion, without limits. All this thanks to Maimeri's vast experience, summed up in an oil line that has proven to be so successful it has become the daily workhorse of a whole generation of artists.

TGR

The Italian Natural Earth Colours are created with pigments of antique origin that have always been used to make the colours that until a few years ago characterized the regional schools of painting throughout Italy. The colours of Roman houses, of Venetian palaces, of the Umbrian or Tuscan hill-towns. They are perfectly mixable with any other type and line of oil paints and egg yolk-based temperas, and can even be used with all the mediums made for this painting technique, the colours in the Italian Natural Earth Colours series have which it is important to know about for their optimal use.

The way they are formulated makes them very similar to those used in the long-ago past for oil painting, traditionally done with earth colours. Italian Natural Earth Colours have larger grain size than other oil paints currently being formulated and so create slightly opaque and rougher coats. Any differences in shine between one type of paint and another, used on the same work, can be remedied with retouching and even final varnishes. The paints may be somewhat denser than those in other series and so it may be best to thin the colour with substances like Oily Thinner, Oilyn or even just a few drops of Poppy Oil or Lavender Essence. Even when thinned, paint coverage is ensured by the maximum concentration of pigment sustainable in formulation.

We recommend using bristle brushes to work or mix the paints on the palette, while generally softer brushes, to the user's taste, can be used for actual painting. The white "White Earth of Carrara" is a thin blending white, created to lessen the tonal density of the individual earth colours without interfering with the final chromatic result by altering its character, as other whites would do. As an exception it can be used pure in fairly thick coats, always bearing in mind that you will get a warm white tint offering little coverage, slightly rough to the touch and extremely soft to the eye. Slight discontinuities in colour tones are a guarantee of the authenticity and naturalness of the product, which contains no additional colorants of organic synthesis

MEDITARAENEO

Places which have their own colour capture the imagination. In the mind, as in memory, every colour has its place and every place has its colour. The Mediterranean, the center of a world. A sea that unites different continents and cultures; the colours and tints of unforgettable sites and civilizations: mare nostrum. This same sea is the fluid palette on which are spread tones that paint the history of humankind. The chromatic assortment of Coarsely Ground Mediterranean Colours is basic, because only a few essential tones are needed to render the magic of a harmonic motion. Pure and, one may say, fundamental, the colours of this light are in any case calibrated to capture every nuance and modulation needed for sunny, luminous and natural painting. "Nature is extraordinarily beautiful here", wrote Van Gogh when, fleeing northern mists and grayness, he journeyed south pursuing the path of light. This is a colour range especially suited to painting with warm, bright and harmonious hues, juxtaposed with one another. Also indicated for en plein air works of sun-drenched landscapes, of warm or temperate climes, or paintings with sunny tonalities and enveloping light. In using these colours we recommend hard bristle, ox-hair or synthetic brushes. The grain size of these colours is larger than for other oil paints and paste density is thicker, with brushstrokes accentuated. The colour dried on the canvas damps the ray of light and softens tones, giving the surface a rugged feel. The colours can be thinned with safflower or walnut oil or appropriate mediums for oil painting. It is best to avoid solvents and essential oils, which would weaken the pastes. In painting with a palette knife, for whose "impressions" these paints are particularly suitable, it might be best to use brilliant mediums to accentuate the luminosity and shine of each single coat. It is also advisable to prepare the canvas with uniform, soft coats of pastel pink or yellowish pink obtained with ochre and Natural Earth Colours (Terre Grezze d'Italia). This can be especially suitable for creations with predominantly blue and greenish blue tones, enhanced by these complementary bases.