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• Do You Paint With Watercolours Or Oils? by Callum Asterman

  Nobody knows when the first watercolours were made, but the evidence that it was a very long time ago can be found deep inside caves once inhabited by Palaeolithic man. Perhaps some powdered stone, plant materials or ash was experimentally combined with a few drops of water and its properties as paint were discovered. Or maybe our prehistoric forebears were more inventive and experimental than we give them credit for, and mixing paint had been a tradition used for centuries earlier. We also know that the Egyptians were familiar with watercolours, as manuscripts still exist which are illuminated with such paints. But watercolours of the type we use today are a fairly recent invention from late medieval Europe.