MaimeriBlu Watercolor

Categories: Art supplies

Introduction

Maimeri Blu (or MaimeriBlu) is a watercolor brand of Maimeri, an Italian art supplier company, part of the Fila Group (along with Lyra, Daler Rowney, and Canson, to name a few well-known companies). This artist-grade watercolor range was fully updated around 2016, with a unique approach: all colors are made from a single pigment (with some rarely used unique pigments), and they offer 90 colors.

Available in ½ pans (1.5 ml) and 12 ml tubes (usually watercolor tubes hold 15 ml). The paint is a bit sticky.

Pigments dispersed a blend of natural Kordofan gum arabic and glycerine and have an average uniform grain size: 5 microns.

Pigment information

They provide a detailed color chart with pigment information, transparency, granulation, lightfastness (on 1-3 scale, marked with stars). See page 109 in their general catalog.

The majority of the colors are transparent (51%).

Lightfastness is rated on a scale of three. Since almost all colors are marked with , (including, for example, 422 Indigo NB1), you better test lightfastness if it’s a concern of yours or check the individual pigment information.

Pigment information on the packaging

They provide pigment information on packaging. It’s crucial because manufacturers could change ingredients over time (for example, using different pigments because the old one was discontinued).

Pigment information on the packaging

Dot cards

Maimeri has some promotional dot cards with 6 colors. On the Japanese market, you can also buy a full range dot-card.

A japanese only full dotcard with printed catalogue.
A promotional dotcard with 6 colors.

Some highlights

Some uncommon/rare pigments, which are not frequently used in other brands:

See the whole range with swatches here

Where to buy

It’s surprisingly hard to buy MaimeriBlu in Germany. Big art supply retailers (Gerstaecker, Boesner, Modulor) do not sell Maimeri online.

The best online source I’ve found is MomArte. The site is Italian, but they ship within the EU. I can only recommend them.

You can also buy from JacksonsArt (UK).

  1. List of the tested MaimeirBlu paints with further links