A Creative Way Art Retreat with Sarah Simon
Get to Know Your Art Supplies
Sarah Simon is the Designer, Artist Illustrator and Author at TheMintGardener. Finding inspiration in the ever-blooming variety of textures and colors in her urban garden, Sarah creates and teaches lush Watercolors inspired by the diverse variety of herbs, flowers, and trees grown in her yard. With a continually blooming following of botanical and art lovers alike, Sarah shares her teaching talents locally in Seattle, where she regularly instructs Watercolor Classes to students of all skill levels.
Princeton is the largest supplier of artist brushes in North America. In recent years, the company has also expanded its global presence. Founded less than 30 years ago, it is the youngest among its competitors. Innovation has been the key to Princeton’s success. Princeton’s synthetic hair brushes are the industry standard. They are better performing, more affordable, and animal-friendly alternatives to natural hair brushes.
Select Artiste™ is a vast line of 29 distinct shapes, 108 individual brushes created for oil, acrylic and watercolor artists. Satin-finish jewel-tone blue handles and silver ferrules make Select Artiste™ as beautiful to look at as it is to paint with.
In your artist kit you will find the Princeton Select 6-piece set that includes a Round size 4, Oval Mop ¾”, Angle Shader 3/8”, Flat Shader size 6, Filbert size 4, and a Liner size 1 brush.
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Velvetouch™ is Princeton's best quality brush for all media including oil, acrylic, watercolor, and gouache. The blend of synthetic is unique to each individual shape to enhance performance. Comfort is ensured with our smooth, signature Velvetouch™ handle.
You will find a Round size 4 and 8, Oval Mop ½ “ , Filbert size 8, Flat Shader size 2 and 8, and a Flat Wash ¾” in your artist kit!
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Rooted in 18th century London, the Rowney Company was established in 1783 when Richard and Thomas Rowney began selling perfumes and wig powder, before focusing their business on the development of artists’ colors. The company built its reputation by providing art materials of the finest quality and is proud to continue to do so today across all channels and product categories pertaining to fine art, with offerings tailored to artists of all levels.
Daler-Rowney Aquafine Travel 12 half pan set: Daler-Rowney Aquafine Watercolor paints offer free-flowing, vibrant and transparent watercolors, ideal for students and professional painters alike. The Aquafine Watercolors have excellent working properties and can be used to create beautiful and delicate washes. They have excellent lightfastness, vibrant, and transparent colors. You can find them in sets and tubes. You have the 12 Half Pan Travel Set.
Learn More About Aquafine Watercolors See the full Aquafine Watercolor Chart
Daler-Rowney Calli Ink is an acrylic-based, pigmented, non-clogging and water-resistant ink specially designed for use in calligraphy. Calli Inks offer optimum flow characteristics from the pen or brush. Calli Ink is perfect for beginners and professionals alike, giving you acrylic-based, waterproof pigmented ink. The ink has excellent flow for use in your calligraphy work and excellent color strength on the page.
In your artist kit you will find Jet Black and Blue Calli Inks.
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The origins of the Lyra brand date back to 1806 when Johann Froescheis began producing pencils in a factory in Nuremberg, Germany. In 1868, the symbol of LYRA was registered as a brand. It is thought the lyre, a musical instrument of the period, was chosen to represent the quality of the pencils because of its synonymity with the perfection and purity it allowed musical artists to achieve. Lyra has been a leader in innovation and excellence for over 200 years and consists of a range of extremely high-quality pencils and crayons.
Lyra Polycrayons soft pastel sticks 12 colors: Lyra Polycrayons Soft Pastel Sticks are highly pigmented, highly light-resistant colors that can be blended and mixed with water for use in artistic and graphic applications. Their square shape is ideal for block or fine work creation. Sticks measure 2-9/16" (6.5 cm) long. This set includes Pale Geranium Lake, Dark Orange, Violet, Light Flesh, White, Light Chrome, Paris Blue, Aquamarine, Silver Gray Warm, Sap Green, Venetian Red, and Black.
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Lyra Aqua Brush Duo Primary Set 6 pc: The Aqua Brush Duo is a water-based ink pen that was especially developed for artists and designers. The outstanding properties of the dual tips on these pens enable the user to produce beautiful brush effects. These brush pens are ideal for laying down fine lines and shading large areas of color in pictures and layouts. This set includes 007 Lemon Yellow, 026 Deep Carmine, 028 Purple Pink, 047 Light Blue, 063 Emerald Green, and 099 Black.
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Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor 12 assorted colors metal box: The colored pencils in this set boast a vibrant, 4mm oil-based lead that provides smooth, effortless strokes of color. The bold lead in these colored art pencils are encased in lacquered cedar for style and longevity. These colored pencils for artists are perfectly suited for use on a variety of surfaces including paper, cardboard, wood and other synthetic materials, offering durability and trouble-free performance in every project. Included in this set: White, Lemon, Light Orange, Pale Geranium Lake, Dark Carmine, Light Blue, Prussian Blue, Sap Green, Apple Green, Van Dyck Brown, Venetian Red, and Black.
Learn More About Rembrandt Polycolors See the Full Color Chart for Polycolors
Lyra Rembrandt Art Design 6 pc metal box: Enjoy an array of creative options as this drawing pencil set is perfectly suited for sketching, drawing, creating technical designs, architectural layouts and more. The consistently smooth texture of these graphite pencils for drawing allows you to produce satisfying, consistent, rich strokes of graphite on your chosen paper surface. The set includes 12 pencils, one each of 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, B, HB, F, H, 2H, 3H, and 4H.
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Maimeri was created in 1923 in Italy and designed by artist and founder, Gianni Maimeri. Maimeri products represent Italian excellence in the production of all materials for painting and drawing. Maimeri is an example of the great passion and constant synergy between art, industry, and innovation.
Your MaimeriBlu Dot Card includes 90 colors from the line each made from a single pigment. The purity of the transparent color allows for a limitless amount of layering. They offer maximum lightfastness, even when very diluted. These paints are formulated using carefully selected single raw materials. Their binder is a balanced blend of natural Kordofan gum arabic and glycerin.
Learn More About MaimeriBlu Watercolors See the Full MaimeriBlu Color Chart
In your artist kit you have one tube of Maimeri Gouache Titantium White. Maimeri Gouache is ideal when you want a smooth, matte, and opaque painting. All colors have great lightfastness and pigment loads. They are fast drying and adhere perfectly to your surface.
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The history of Strathmore Paper Company began on St. Patrick’s Day in 1892 when its founder, Horace Moses, opened the Mittineague paper mill in West Springfield, MA. Strathmore has been a leading supplier of fine art papers for over 125 years and was founded with the belief that better paper makes better art. Strathmore provides artists of all levels with one of the widest ranges of quality surfaces for producing beautiful works of art, no matter the choice of medium. Listening to the needs of artists and providing inspiration, education, and innovative new products is at the core of what matters to Strathmore.
Strathmore Watercolor Travel Journal: Created with Plein Air Painters and Urban Sketchers in mind, the Travel Series is designed to meet the needs of on-location artwork. Made with 100% cotton watercolor paper, the Travel Series is perfect for the artist who is looking for a tough and resilient surface for scrubbing, scraping and other rough techniques. The series offer a pad and journal in convenient portable sizes and formats, providing users with more artistic freedom. The pad contains 12 sheets of 140lb cold press watercolor paper, and the journal contains 20 pages.
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Strathmore 400 Series Watercolor Softcover Art Journal: This intermediate grade watercolor paper has a strong surface that is ideal for watercolor, gouache and acrylic. The natural white color and traditional cold press surface allows for fine and even washes, as well as lifting and scraping applications.
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Strathmore Watercolor Visual Journal: Strathmore® Visual Journals deliver high-performing papers and heavy-duty features engineered to meet the intense demands of your creative process. The removable cover sheet reveals a subtle, hand-illustrated cover design. The wire binding allows the journal to lie flat and open up 360 degrees. Made with the same paper as the 400 series watercolor.
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Canson is a world-wide leader in Fine Art paper manufacturing. Since 1557, Canson has created high quality papers for a range of creatives including artists and design professionals to students and photographers. Whatever the experience level or age, Canson’s wide range of products will satisfy their needs.
In your artist kit you will find Canson XL Watercolor 9x12 sheets. They feature a cold press textured paper that works beautifully for a variety of techniques. The durable surface withstands repeated washes.
Learn More About XL Watercolor Paper See Different Mediums on this Paper
In 1492, master papermakers were already making paper by hand in the Arches paper mill location in the Vosges region of France. The Arches paper mill is now the only millin France to manufacture all its fine art and printing papers using cylinder moulds. Great artists like Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and many more, have produced some of their major works on ARCHES® paper. They are our best ambassadors. Their choice bears witness to the outstanding quality and permanence of ARCHES® papers.
In your artist kit you will find Arches Bright white cold press sheets. They are made with 100 % long cotton fiber that gives the paper its beauty, a natural, lasting whiteness, and strength. Ideal for watercolor painting, as for all wet techniques such as ink, gouache and acrylic.