“A Note from Michael Harding’s Website: “Currently, stack lead white cannot be sold in the UK or EU unless a painter has a restorer’s license. This is per the governing body REACH. Inorganic—I create this pigment myself, following a time-honoured process, in small, handmade batches. Many art historians have noticed there is something in the nature of the Old Masters’ oil paints–particularly whites–that can’t be replicated by today’s paints because the method for making them has changed. To recreate the actual white pigment that would have been familiar to Rembrandt, Titian, and Vermeer, to name a few, I researched lead whites and the old Dutch stack process for many years. Prior to the industrial revolution, lead whites were made using a method that traces back to before the time of Christ. The Dutch found ways to scale the making of this paint without changing the underlying process in the 13th century. Using this historical technique, every particle of Stack Lead White created is different, so on a nanoscale, every conglomeration of pigment particles behaves differently. That’s the beauty of Stack Lead White. With industrially made pigments, every particle is identical, so conventional paints can’t be used to create the brush strokes of the whites from centuries ago. -Michael Harding Oils