Some of you Golden fans may recall how back in 2023 and 2024, Golden discontinued three of their quinacridone colors in their acrylic line — quinacridone burnt orange, quinacridone/nickel azo gold, and quinacridone crimson. And while quinacridone crimson has been permanently discontinued, thankfully after a long wait, quinacridone burnt orange and quinacridone/nickel azo gold have new replacements*.
However, back in September of 2024, Golden dropped a new shocking announcement. They’re going to discontinue two staple colors. Those two colors being yellow ochre and raw sienna!
Just a few months ago, Golden published an article onto their research, information, and announcements website, Just Paint, discussing the discontinuation. If you’re interested in reading the full article then click here. I’ll be providing a brief, summarized, version of Golden’s article down below.
So, what’s happening? Why is Golden saying that they’re going to discontinue two commonly used colors? Firstly, just know that Golden isn’t voluntarily discontinuing yellow ochre and raw sienna, nor do they plan to stop making those colors altogether! The company stated that they’re having production issues, and they won’t be able to get the natural earth pigment necessary to create those colors anymore. So, what does this mean for us artists going forward?
Golden announced that they will continue to “offer individual natural earth pigments for as long as we can, even if there are slight shifts in the color,”. Seeing as both colors are used in various Golden brands, they expect to run out at different times. They anticipate yellow ochre to run out in their acrylic lines around late 2024/early 2025, with Williamsburg oils and QoR watercolors running out later this year. As for raw sienna, they anticipate running out in all brands around late 2025.
Going forward, once they run out of natural pigment they’ll begin selling alternatives to yellow ochre and raw sienna using synthetic pigments. And while the new alternative may look similar to the previous versions, they are bound to have different painting properties.
As of now, Golden only has swatches for the new heavy body acrylics. Stating that they plan to release swatches of the new oils and watercolors at a later time. But, when reviewing Golden’s comparisons between the current and the new colors, there’s honestly hardly any difference in appearance. However, as a result of using synthetic pigments, we’ll be missing out on the transparent properties that comes with using natural earth pigments.
And since it’ll be a while before Golden starts selling these new paints, it’s hard to say how they’ll compare to the artistic properties of the originals. For now, let’s just hope that Golden is able to transition and sell the new paints in a timely manner so we don’t have another paint scarcity like we did with the quinacridones!
*quinacridone burnt orange has been replaced by benzimidazolone burnt orange, and quinacridone/nickel azo gold has been replaced by azo gold.
Sources:
Mirjam Auf der Mauer, 2024, ‘Availability Issues with Natural Earth Pigments’, Sep. 24, 2024, https://justpaint.org/availability-issues-with-natural-earths/
