Ninety-one brand guides to artists’ materials — paint, coloured pencils, paper and canvas — and who makes them.
Art materials are made by a mix of historic colourmen, family mills and a few large groups. These guides set out who owns each brand and where it is made.
The F.I.L.A. family
Italy’s F.I.L.A. Group owns a long list of names covered here: Daler-Rowney (and through it Ferrario), Maimeri, Lyra, Giotto, Canson, Arches, St Cuthberts Mill and, through Pacon, Strathmore. Its rival paper group Fedrigoni owns Magnani 1404. Royal Talens, the Dutch house behind Rembrandt and Van Gogh, has been Japanese-owned since 1991, and Bruynzeel is part of Royal Talens.
Independent and family makers
Others stay independent. Golden is employee-owned; Michael Harding hand-mills oils in South Wales; Art Spectrum is family-owned and Australian-made; General Pencil has been family-owned and made in Jersey City since 1889; Viarco is Portugal’s only pencil factory; and Claessens has hand-finished linen canvas in Waregem since 1906. Handmade-paper mills such as Velké Losiny, built in the 1590s, still make paper by hand.
How to use these guides
Each guide covers who owns the name today, where the products are made — by the maker’s own account and, where it differs, by other sources — and the brand’s visual identity. A company’s description of itself is attributed to the company, and where a business has closed we say so plainly. The table at the end gathers the essentials.
Artists’ paint, part 1
Winsor & Newton, Sennelier, Old Holland, Schmincke, Gamblin, Holbein and Maimeri.
- Winsor & Newton — The London colourmen since 1832, art and science together, whose colours are now made in France.
- Sennelier — The Paris colourman by the Seine since 1887, whose oil pastel was created for Picasso and whose paint is made in France by Max Sauer.
- Old Holland — The Dutch maker of high-pigment classic oils, tracing a colour-making tradition to 1664 and revived by the de Beer family.
- Schmincke — The German artists’ colour house since 1881, made in Erkrath, known for its Horadam watercolours.
- Gamblin — The Portland oil-colour maker, founded 1980, built on modern craft and studio safety, made in the USA.
- Holbein — The Japanese colour house from Osaka, with roots to 1900, known for its gouache and Acryla Gouache.
- Maimeri — The Italian colour house founded by a painter and a chemist in 1923, made near Milan, now part of the F.I.L.A. Group.
Artists’ paint, part 2
Langridge, Lascaux, Blockx, Mijello, Camlin, Roman Szmal and Daniel Smith.
- Langridge — The independent Melbourne colour-house making handmade oils and dry pigments, founded by David Coles.
- Lascaux — The Swiss colour-house since 1963, making professional acrylics and its Restauro conservation materials, handmade in Brüttisellen.
- Blockx — The Belgian colour-house founded in 1865, known for extra-fine oils and honey-binder watercolours, now part of the Exacompta Clairefontaine group.
- Mijello — The Korean brand founded in 2002 as a palette maker that became known for its Mission Gold professional watercolours.
- Camlin — India’s everyday art-and-stationery house, whose Camel art brand is a fixture of Indian classrooms, now majority-owned by Japan’s Kokuyo.
- Roman Szmal — The eponymous Polish maker of handmade Aquarius professional watercolours, with a large range and a devoted following.
- Daniel Smith — The Seattle watercolour maker, milling pigment in the USA, known for its Quinacridones and PrimaTek genuine-mineral colours.
Artists’ paint, part 3
Golden, Michael Harding, Royal Talens, Turner, Marie’s, Pébéo and Art Spectrum.
- Golden — The employee-owned American acrylic maker in New Berlin, New York, and the house behind QoR watercolours and Williamsburg oils.
- Michael Harding — The independent, artist-founded maker of hand-milled high-pigment oil colours in South Wales since 1982.
- Royal Talens — The Dutch colour house in Apeldoorn behind Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Amsterdam, founded 1899 and Japanese-owned since 1991.
- Turner — The Osaka colour maker since 1946, famous for Acryl Gouache — and not to be confused with the painter J.M.W. Turner.
- Marie’s — The Shanghai colour house since 1919, China’s everyday art staple, credited with the country’s first domestic watercolour, oil and acrylic.
- Pébéo — The independent French creative-colour house since 1919, family-run from Provence, making fine-art and creative colours across France, Tunisia and China.
- Art Spectrum — The independent, family-owned Australian colour maker in Melbourne, 100% Australian-made, known for its oils, pastels and Colourfix ground.
Pigments and colourmen
M. Graham, L. Cornelissen, Kremer Pigmente, Ferrario, ShinHan, Acrilex and White Nights.
- M. Graham — The independent small-batch Oregon maker whose watercolours are bound with honey and whose oils are ground in walnut oil.
- L. Cornelissen — The historic London colourman’s shop since 1855, selling raw pigments, gilding materials and traditional artists’ colours.
- Kremer Pigmente — The German pigment specialist in Aichstetten, making raw, rare and reconstructed historical pigments for artists, conservators and museums.
- Ferrario — The Milanese fine-art house founded in 1919, known for its Van Dyck oils, now a brand of the F.I.L.A. Group via Daler-Rowney.
- ShinHan — The long-established Korean colour maker since 1967, making a full range from student paints to its PWC professional watercolours.
- Acrilex — Brazil’s ubiquitous school and craft colour maker since 1964, the largest crafts-paint producer in Latin America.
- White Nights — The professional artist watercolour from the St. Petersburg paint factory Nevskaya Palitra, a colour-house tradition dating to 1899.
Coloured pencils, part 1
Derwent, Prismacolor, Mitsubishi Uni, Koh-I-Noor, Cretacolor, Bruynzeel and Lyra.
- Derwent — The Cumberland pencil house from the English Lake District, now an ACCO brand, known for its Coloursoft and Lightfast pencils.
- Prismacolor — The American soft wax-core coloured pencil, a Newell Brands name descended from the Eagle Pencil Company, now made offshore.
- Mitsubishi Uni — The Japanese precision pencil maker since 1887, unrelated to the Mitsubishi conglomerate, known for its Uni Color and erasable Arterase pencils.
- Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth — The Bohemian pencil house, founded in Vienna in 1790 and made in the Czech Republic, known for its yellow 1500 and Polycolor pencils.
- Cretacolor — The only Austrian maker of artists’ materials, made in Hirm, tracing its heritage to the Hardtmuth pencil tradition.
- Bruynzeel — The Dutch heritage coloured-pencil brand, making pencils since 1948 and now part of Royal Talens under Japan’s Sakura.
- Lyra — The Nuremberg pencil house since 1806, now a F.I.L.A. Group company, known for its Rembrandt Polycolor and Ferby pencils.
Coloured pencils, part 2
Marco, Hindustan Pencils, Viarco, Milan, General Pencil, Giotto and Kitaboshi.
- Marco — China’s value coloured pencil, a modern Shanghai brand now under M&G, popular worldwide as an affordable alternative to premium houses.
- Hindustan Pencils — India’s largest pencil maker, the family firm behind the ubiquitous Nataraj and Apsara pencils, made in India since 1958.
- Viarco — Portugal’s only pencil factory, in São João da Madeira, a family-owned house whose ArtGraf graphite became a cult artist favourite.
- Milan — The Spanish stationery house since 1918, famous for its nata erasers, whose coloured pencils are one line in a broad, colourful range.
- General Pencil — The American-made art pencil, family-owned by the Weissenborns and made in Jersey City, New Jersey, since 1889.
- Giotto — The Italian school-and-children’s art brand of the F.I.L.A. Group, a colouring staple since 1925 named after the painter Giotto.
- Kitaboshi — The small heritage Tokyo wood-pencil house, family-run and sustainability-minded, that also makes traditional coloured and marking pencils.
Pencil makers
Musgrave, Dong-A, Simbalion, Adel, Chung Hwa, Laurentien and St. Majewski.
- Musgrave — The American-made pencil house of Shelbyville, Tennessee, a family firm making pencils since 1916 in the old “Pencil City.”
- Dong-A — The Korean writing-and-stationery house since 1946, whose name means pencil but whose range spans pens, pencils and colour.
- Simbalion — Taiwan’s “lion” art-and-stationery house since 1956, a household name for crayons, markers and colour made in Taiwan and China.
- Adel — Turkey’s leading pencil maker, an Anadolu Group company that makes its own Adel brand and produces Faber-Castell in Turkey.
- Chung Hwa — China’s iconic everyday graphite pencil since 1935, made in Shanghai and now a subsidiary of the Lao Feng Xiang group.
- Laurentien — The beloved Canadian pencil-crayon brand, a classroom staple for generations that was discontinued around 2012.
- St. Majewski — The heritage Polish school-supply house from Pruszków, whose Bambino brand is a childhood staple of crayons, pencils and colour.
School and drawing brands
Arteza, Deli, DOMS, Berol, Eberhard Faber, Alpino and Conté à Paris.
- Arteza — The modern American direct-to-consumer art brand, affordable and online-first, whose supplies are designed in the US and made in China.
- Deli — The giant Chinese office-and-stationery house since 1981, Asia’s largest, whose coloured pencils are one line in a vast catalogue.
- DOMS — India’s number-two branded stationery maker, made in Gujarat, with roots in 1975 and a strategic partnership with Italy’s F.I.L.A.
- Berol — The British school-and-handwriting brand, once the Eagle Pencil Company and cousin to Prismacolor, now a Newell brand of imported goods.
- Eberhard Faber — The heritage pencil name founded by Lothar von Faber’s brother, famed for graphite (the original Blackwing 602) and split between two owners.
- Alpino — The Spanish school-and-children’s art brand from Barcelona, a childhood staple of coloured pencils and PlastiAlpino wax crayons since 1943.
- Conté à Paris — The French drawing brand descended from Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who invented the graphite-and-clay lead in 1795, now owned by BIC.
Canvas and panels
Claessens, Fredrix, Belle Arti, Artfix, Ampersand, Raymar and Caravaggio.
- Claessens — The family Belgian house that has hand-finished artist linen canvas in Waregem, in the Flax District, since 1906.
- Fredrix — The Georgia canvas maker, tracing to 1868, that finishes Belgian linen and stretches canvas in the USA, now under MacPherson’s.
- Belle Arti — The Tuscan maker, trading as P.E.R. Belle Arti, that controls the whole production cycle of its Italian cotton and linen canvas.
- Artfix — The Provence maker of oil-primed linen in its own French workshops, now owned by Chassis France.
- Ampersand — The woman-owned Texas maker hand-crafting its Claybord and Gessobord hardboard painting panels in its own Buda factory.
- Raymar — The mother-and-daughter Arizona maker assembling archival canvas-and-linen painting panels in the USA since 1998.
- Caravaggio — The Blick house-brand linen canvas that discloses its linen is milled in Varese, Italy.
Surfaces
Masterpiece, Yupo, Hahnemühle, Judsons, UART, Loxley and Centurion.
- Masterpiece Artist Canvas — The family San Diego maker stretching cotton and linen canvas on kiln-dried bars at its own North American factory since 1965.
- Yupo — The tree-free synthetic polypropylene paper from a Japanese joint venture, with its art-grade sheet made in the USA in Chesapeake, Virginia.
- Hahnemühle — The German fine-art paper mill on a site dating to 1584, independent again only since 2004, maker of cotton-rag and fine-art inkjet papers.
- Judsons — The family Colorado maker behind Guerrilla Painter, making many of its plein-air panels, pochade boxes and carriers in-house in LaPorte.
- UART — The American sanded pastel paper made by the abrasives maker Uneeda in Spring Valley, New York, in a range of numbered grits.
- Loxley — The Sheffield art brand, trading since 1994, that sells stretched canvas and panels but discloses no country of origin on its own site.
- Centurion — The oil-primed linen sold as a house brand of Art Supply Warehouse, whose country of manufacture is undisclosed across every retailer.
Fine-art paper mills
Canson, Arches, St Cuthberts Mill, Strathmore, Magnani 1404, Khadi Papers and Awagami.
- Canson — The French paper house tracing to 1557 and the Montgolfier family, maker of Mi-Teintes and Moulin du Roy, now owned by Italy’s F.I.L.A.
- Arches — The cylinder-mould watercolour paper still milled in the town of Arches, France, pulled from the Arjowiggins collapse into F.I.L.A. in 2019.
- St Cuthberts Mill — The Somerset mill making Saunders Waterford and Bockingford on a cylinder-mould machine since the 1700s, now owned by F.I.L.A.
- Strathmore — The 1892 American art-paper brand with a Scottish name, now owned by Italy’s F.I.L.A. through its acquisition of Pacon.
- Magnani 1404 — The Italian cotton fine-art paper name claiming a 1404 heritage, owned by Fedrigoni — the rival group to F.I.L.A.
- Khadi Papers — The UK company whose 100% cotton-rag paper is handmade in Hubli, in southern India, with partner mills in Nepal and Bhutan.
- Awagami — The independent Fujimori family washi mill in Tokushima, Japan, making handmade fine-art and inkjet paper across eight generations.
Handmade paper
Twinrocker, Cave Paper, Saint-Armand, Porridge Papers, Two Rivers, Richard de Bas and Velké Losiny.
- Twinrocker — The Brookston, Indiana handmade-paper mill founded by the Clarks in 1971 and carried on by master papermaker Travis Becker.
- Cave Paper — The handmade-paper studio founded in Minneapolis in 1994 and run in Tucson since 2020 by Zoë Goehring, known for indigo- and walnut-dyed sheets.
- Papeterie Saint-Armand — The Montréal handmade-paper mill run by David Carruthers and Denise Lapointe, making cotton and flax sheets by hand.
- Porridge Papers — The Lincoln, Nebraska handmade-paper shop, established 1993, making deckled cotton, seed and recycled sheets to order.
- Two Rivers Paper — The handmade-paper mill at Watchet, in Somerset, described as one of the last traditional handmade paper mills in England.
- Moulin Richard de Bas — The Auvergne paper mill at Ambert that still forms sheets by hand and runs a paper museum, revived by the Péraudeau family in 1943.
- Velké Losiny — The Czech hand paper mill built in the 1590s, a national cultural monument that still makes rag paper by hand as an independent company.
Sketchbooks and pads
Stillman & Birn, Fluid, Bee Paper, Pentalic, Daler-Rowney, Etchr and Seawhite.
- Stillman & Birn — The New York artist-sketchbook name from 1958, with its Greek-letter series, now an Exaclair company under France’s Clairefontaine group.
- Fluid — The watercolour paper and block brand, once part of Global Art Materials, now a brand of the American art-tools maker Speedball.
- Bee Paper — The American drawing, sketch and watercolour pad maker, now a division of the family-owned Royal Brush of Munster, Indiana.
- Pentalic — The American sketchbook and journal brand that is, like Bee Paper, a brand of Royal Brush Manufacturing.
- Daler-Rowney — The British art-materials house tracing to Rowney in 1783, maker of pads and sketchbooks, now owned by Italy’s F.I.L.A.
- Etchr — The independent, founder-owned Australian brand behind the Perfect Sketchbook and cotton watercolour books, born in Adelaide in 2017.
- Seawhite of Brighton — The independent family firm that manufactures its own sketchbooks in West Sussex, closing the round on transparent British making.
At a glance: who owns the name and where it is made
Taken from each guide’s fact panel, as of October 2026. Ownership and production change; follow the link for sources and detail.
| Brand | Founded | Owner | Where made |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acrilex | 1964 (Brazil) | See guide | São Bernardo do Campo |
| Adel | See guide | See guide | Çayırova, Kocaeli |
| Alpino | See guide | See guide | Barcelona area |
| Ampersand | 1993 (Buda, TX) | Woman-owned | USA (own factory) |
| Arches | 1492 (claimed) (Vosges) | F.I.L.A. (2019) | Arches, France |
| Art Spectrum | early 1960s (Australia) | See guide | Melbourne, Australia |
| Arteza | ~2015 (USA) | See guide | China (DTC) |
| Artfix | 1958 (Provence) | Chassis France (2023) | France (own workshops) |
| Awagami | 8 generations (Tokushima) | Fujimori family | Tokushima, Japan |
| Bee Paper | Heritage brand (Indiana) | Royal Brush | USA (claim to verify) |
| Belle Arti | 1979 (Tuscany) | Independent | Italy (whole cycle) |
| Berol | 1856 (England) | Newell Brands | See guide |
| Blockx | 1865 (Belgium) | See guide | Belgium (heritage) |
| Bruynzeel | See guide | Royal Talens / Sakura | See guide |
| Camlin | 1931 (India) | See guide | India (Mumbai) |
| Canson | 1557 (France) | F.I.L.A. (2016) | France |
| Caravaggio | House brand (Blick) | Blick house brand | Linen milled in Italy (stated) |
| Cave Paper | 1994 (founded) | Zoë Goehring | Tucson, USA |
| Centurion | Not published | ASW house brand | Undisclosed |
| Chung Hwa | 1935 (China) | See guide | Shanghai |
| Claessens | 1906 (Waregem) | Claessens family | Belgium (finished) |
| Conté à Paris | 1795 (France) | BIC | See guide |
| Cretacolor | See guide | See guide | Hirm, Austria |
| Daler-Rowney | 1783 (Rowney) (UK) | F.I.L.A. (2016) | UK (Bracknell, some) |
| Daniel Smith | 1976 (USA) | See guide | Seattle, Washington |
| Deli | 1981 (China) | See guide | Ningbo, China |
| Derwent | 1832 (England) | See guide | Workington, Cumbria |
| DOMS | 1975 (India) | See guide | Umbergaon, Gujarat |
| Dong-A | 1946 (South Korea) | See guide | Daejeon, Korea |
| Eberhard Faber | 1861 (USA / Germany) | Faber-Castell / Newell | See guide |
| Etchr | 2017 (Australia) | Independent (founders) | Not disclosed |
| Ferrario | 1919 (Italy) | F.I.L.A. Group | See guide |
| Fluid | Speedball era (USA) | Speedball | Not disclosed |
| Fredrix | 1868 (self-reported) (Georgia) | MacPherson’s (2022) | Finished/stretched USA |
| Gamblin | 1980 (USA) | See guide | Portland, Oregon |
| General Pencil | 1889 (USA) | See guide | Jersey City, NJ |
| Giotto | See guide | F.I.L.A. Group | See guide |
| Golden | 1980 (USA) | See guide | New Berlin, New York |
| Hahnemühle | 1584 (Germany) | Independent since 2004 | Germany |
| Hindustan Pencils | 1958 (India) | See guide | India |
| Holbein | See guide | See guide | Osaka, Japan |
| Judsons | 1987 (Colorado) | Judson family | Colorado (many in-house) |
| Khadi Papers | UK brand (made in India) | Independent (UK) | Hubli, India |
| Kitaboshi | See guide | See guide | Tokyo (Katsushika) |
| Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth | 1790 (Vienna → Bohemia) | See guide | České Budějovice, CZ |
| Kremer Pigmente | 1977 (Germany) | See guide | Aichstetten, DE |
| L. Cornelissen | 1855 (England) | See guide | See guide |
| Langridge | 1992 (Australia) | See guide | Melbourne (Yarraville) |
| Lascaux | 1963 (Switzerland) | See guide | Brüttisellen, CH |
| Laurentien | See guide | See guide | See guide |
| Loxley | 1994 (Sheffield) | Colourfull Arts Ltd | Imported (undisclosed) |
| Lyra | 1806 (Germany) | F.I.L.A. Group | See guide |
| M. Graham | late 1990s (USA) | See guide | Oregon, USA |
| Magnani 1404 | 1404 (claimed) (Italy) | Fedrigoni | Italy |
| Maimeri | 1923 (Italy) | See guide | Mediglia, Milan |
| Marco | 1992 (China) | See guide | Shanghai / Jilin |
| Marie’s | 1919 (China) | See guide | Shanghai, China |
| Masterpiece Artist Canvas | 1965 (San Diego) | Sooklaris family | USA (own factory) |
| Michael Harding | 1982 (England) | See guide | South Wales, UK |
| Mijello | 2002 (South Korea) | See guide | South Korea |
| Milan | 1918 (Spain) | See guide | Mont-Ras, Girona |
| Mitsubishi Uni | 1887 (Japan) | See guide | Japan |
| Moulin Richard de Bas | Revived 1943 (Ambert) | Richard de Bas SARL | Auvergne, France |
| Musgrave | 1916 (USA) | See guide | Shelbyville, TN |
| Old Holland | See guide | See guide | Driebergen, NL |
| Papeterie Saint-Armand | Est. unverified (Montréal) | Carruthers & Lapointe | Montréal, Canada |
| Pentalic | Unverified (USA) | Royal Brush | Not disclosed |
| Porridge Papers | 1993 (Nebraska) | Independent | Lincoln, USA |
| Prismacolor | See guide | See guide | Offshore (Mexico) |
| Pébéo | 1919 (France) | See guide | France, Tunisia & China |
| Raymar | 1998 (Arizona) | Dietrich family | USA (linen imported) |
| Roman Szmal | See guide | See guide | Poland (handmade) |
| Royal Talens | 1899 (Netherlands) | See guide | Apeldoorn, NL |
| Schmincke | 1881 (Germany) | See guide | Erkrath, Germany |
| Seawhite of Brighton | ~early 1970s (West Sussex) | Independent (family) | Made in Britain |
| Sennelier | 1887 (France) | See guide | France (Max Sauer) |
| ShinHan | 1967 (South Korea) | See guide | South Korea |
| Simbalion | 1956 (Taiwan) | See guide | Taiwan & China |
| St Cuthberts Mill | 1700s (Somerset) | F.I.L.A. (2016) | Wells, England |
| St. Majewski | 1890s (Poland) | See guide | Pruszków, Poland |
| Stillman & Birn | 1958 (New York) | Exaclair / Clairefontaine | Not disclosed |
| Strathmore | 1892 (USA) | F.I.L.A. via Pacon (2018) | USA (converter) |
| Turner | 1946 (Japan) | See guide | Osaka, Japan |
| Twinrocker | 1971 (Indiana) | Travis Becker | Brookston, USA |
| Two Rivers Paper | Est. unverified (Somerset) | Independent | Watchet, England |
| UART | Est. unverified (Spring Valley) | Uneeda | USA (by Uneeda) |
| Velké Losiny | 1590s (Moravia) | Independent (a.s.) | Velké Losiny, Czechia |
| Viarco | See guide | See guide | S. João da Madeira |
| White Nights | 1899 (Russia) | See guide | St. Petersburg |
| Winsor & Newton | 1832 (England) | See guide | See guide |
| Yupo | 1970 (Tokyo) | Oji + Mitsubishi JV | USA (art-grade) |
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Canson and Arches?
Italy’s F.I.L.A. Group, according to our guides.
Is Golden Artist Colors independent?
Yes; our guide describes Golden as employee-owned.
See also our stationery brand guidelines.
Part of our Design & Stationery brand guidelines. See also all collections.