Pastel Bluish Grey Light is rated +++ on Royal Talens' scale. Three pluses means the colour is rated to last at least 100 years under museum conditions, two pluses at least 25 years. Museum conditions means indoors and out of direct sunlight. That rating is why work painted in Amsterdam Standard Series is safe to sell, provided the buyer is not hanging it in a north-facing window.

The Amsterdam Standard Series runs in 20ml, 120ml, 250ml, 500ml and 1 litre, though not every colour is made in every size. We carry the sizes that move, and the 500ml jar is the one to choose when you are painting large, teaching, mixing in volume or working on murals and props. If you want a size you cannot see on the site, ask us and we will check what Royal Talens produces in that colour.

Pastel Bluish Grey Light is opaque. That determines how you should use it. An opaque colour covers what is beneath it in one or two coats and is what you want for blocking in and correcting. A semi-transparent or transparent colour lets the layer underneath influence the result, which makes it ideal for glazing and shadow work but frustrating if you are trying to cover something. Check the swatch on the jar against a black bar to see it for yourself.

Royal Talens, based in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. The company was founded in 1899 and also makes Rembrandt oils and pastels, Van Gogh oils and watercolours, Cobra water-mixable oils, Ecoline liquid watercolour and Bruynzeel pencils. Amsterdam acrylics are manufactured in the Netherlands, not contract-made offshore, which is part of why batch-to-batch consistency is reliable when you are mixing a colour you need to match again later.

Yes, Click and Collect is available from our Moorabbin store, for Melbourne metro customers. Order online and the Click and Collect option appears as a delivery method once you enter your address. Allow 1 to 3 business days for your order to be picked and packed, and we will email you when it is ready. Orders need to be collected within 4 business days of that notification. Someone else can collect on your behalf if they have the order number.

Not as freely, because acrylic sets fast, but you can get close with the right approach. Work wet into wet quickly and in small areas, keep a mister handy, and use an acrylic retarder or an open medium to extend the working time. The alternative approach, which often looks better, is to build the blend in thin glazes once each layer is dry, letting the transitions happen optically rather than physically.

Yes, and it holds well because terracotta is porous. Clean the pot, let it dry completely, then paint directly or over a coat of gesso if you want a brighter base. For pots that will live outside or be watered, seal the finished paint with an exterior-grade clear varnish and ideally seal the inside of the pot separately, because water wicking through unsealed terracotta from behind is what lifts the paint.

Neither, if you can avoid it. Freezing can break the acrylic emulsion so the paint separates into a grainy, curdled mess that will not stir back together. Sustained heat thickens it, can partially cure it in the jar, and shortens its life considerably. An Australian car in summer gets well past the point where this matters within an hour. If a delivery has been sitting in heat, open it, check the consistency and tell us if it has been affected.

Yes, for feature walls, murals and children's rooms. Artist acrylic is far more pigmented than house paint, so it covers in fewer coats and goes further per litre than you would expect, which is why people usually use it for the artwork itself and standard wall paint for the surrounding field. Make sure the wall is clean and free of grease, and keep in mind that artist acrylic in a satin finish will not scrub like a washable interior paint unless you seal it.