Marble White: New Tint on the Block

I had never heard of Marble White before Mandy introduced us at the Wet Paint store in St. Paul. I was immediately interested in this new pigment--a transparent white oil paint? Really?! So I bought a tube.

Well, let me tell you, Marble White and I had a rocky first date. It was the only white paint I had with me during a two-hour quick paint competition. (I forgot my French easel at home, fully loaded with all my usual colors--doh! So, rather than waste the trip over, I scrounged up an easel, palette, and as many colors as I could find amongst my backup supplies. I had to borrow a few colors from a friend--thanks again, Jerry Jo!) I had just purchased Marble White the day before, so it was standing in for my typical, trusty Titanium White.

I think I went through about a half the 150 mL tube of Marble White in one hour while I was trying to figure out why the white DISAPPEARED when mixed with the other colors. When they say “transparent” they really mean it! Titanium White never acted that way--it always let its presence be known. When I switched from thinking of Marble White as white, to thinking of it as clear, Marble Clear and I had much more fun together. I was able to achieve vivid, luminous, translucent, high-toned colors by starting with the clear and adding the tiniest fraction of color. The clear paint let the light bounce through the paint layer and makes the few colored pigment molecules sing out. The oil paint took on a stained glass look--very translucent and shiny.

During our quick 2-hour first date, I found it very difficult to achieve mid-values. The background ended up darker than I intended. Marble Clear can’t replace Titanium White for lightening most colors. I will say that Marble Clear CAN lighten red without turning it pink! And because it takes so little colored pigment, it really can extend those expensive cadmiums. (A large tube of Marble Clear cost me $20. A small tube of Cadmium Yellow or Red can be $30.) Turns out that Marble Clear is a pretty cheap date!

Marble Clear has come to my rescue a time or two since our first blind date. When I’ve misjudged how much paint I will need and ran out too soon. Rather than spend a ton of time mixing and mixing to get as close as possible to the original color, I’ve pulled out Mr. Marble Clear and voila! I suddenly have a lot more paint of the very same color! It adds a bit more of a translucent property to the paint, but the color itself is virtually unchanged if I had enough of the original color.

In conclusion, I have found that Marble White doesn’t replace Titanium White. It doesn’t have the strength to be the workhorse of my palette. But Marble Clear does have a place in my bag of tricks. I now carry a tube in my plein air backpack to do the things that Titanium just can’t do, such as lighten red without turning it pink, extending paint without dramatically changing its value or turning it chalky, or increasing the luminescence of paints (making it seem like it’s giving off light). In any case, I’d like to thank Mandy, at Wet Paint for introducing us.