OIL PAINTING BY NUMBERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27669, 27 May 1955, Page 17

OIL PAINTING BY NUMBERS

KITS PRODUCED FOR AMATEURS An enterprising British manufacturer has brought painting in oils to produce pictures of satisfactory, if slightly calendar-like, quality within the reach of everyone. It is a development of the child’s painting-book method, but uses proper canvas and oil paints instead of paper and watercolours. With anyone of the several dozen kits being produced in the London factory a little care and close adherence to the rules will produce a quite attractive picture. Each canvas is printed with outlines defining the area for each colour and with numbers in each section. The numbers denote the colour of paint to be used to fill in the area, and with the bru§h provided the amateur “artist” follows the directions until no areas remain unpainted. So far more than 24 different scenes have been reduced to numbered sections on canvases for inclusion in the painting kitg, and jnore are being designed and put'into production. The present range covers mountain, street, and sea scenes, portraits, still-life subjects such as .the übiquitous vase oi flowers and a reproduction of a stained glass church window. Depending on the scope of the kit and the demands of the particular canvas about 20 or 30 little sockets filled with oil paints are fitted to the cardboard pallette. Further consideration for the “artist’s” need is shown by the thoughtful provision of a separate kit containing materials to produce a frame for the picture.