Trip to Holland

Apeldoorn

We travelled to Holland towards the end of May and spent a few days on business in Apeldoorn. Visiting our supplier Royal Talens has been a dream come true for me since I started working with Trinity Arts in 2004.  We went over for Product Training which was all led by one of Royal Talens Artists – Marieanna. It was such a brilliant opportunity to learn all that we did on the art supplies we sell, which are handmade and shipped by RT themselves, as we gained a lot of information we did not know before and it was all very much hands on too. Marieanna did a fantastic job at teaching us about the many beautiful ranges of art materials – which we were swarmed by in the studio, a rainbow of colours lying around us perfectly well in a organised fashion. Felt truly inspired to get creative with the many supplies I saw from my own eyes. The whole visit from the product training, to meeting staff, dining out and seeing the sights of Apeldoorn and Amsterdam was incredible and a whole new experience. Holland is very different and the people look after themselves well and look after he cleanliness of their country. It is a place to visit.

Product Training on the Royal Talens Supplies

As much as I was feeling inspired by the rainbow of colourful paints I found this visit to Royal Talens extremely beneficial.  Just being able to hear and learn more about the characteristics of the materials supplied was really exciting and, I think being an artist  and having the enthusiasm and passion for art and painting helps all the more while gaining on the information we did. We even got to walk round the factory and see how the paints were made and see each product being boxed and packaged. The most exciting part of the factory was watching the 3 roller mill as the paint was rolled around grinding the lumps in the paint, where the high pigments oare getting finer and finer in a repeated process. The colours of paint was stretched like a elastic sheet.  This was amazing and wish I had been able to get a photograph but unfortunately we were not allowed to do so. I will come to talk about the factory in more detail later but, I just had to mention this as it was an amazing part to see.

Factory Tour

Going around the factory with one of Talens artists’ was an eye opener as we got to see how every product is made from start to finish. This was very beneficial to us and helped us understand the properties  and characteristics of each product they supply. The majority of Royal Talens art supplies are made by hand and on sight in their very own warehouse and , the factory itself is spotless. Never seen anywhere so clean and spotless and, the staff who work in the factory – which is very many – are particular and do their job in great detail. It was somewhat amazing to see and even this inspired us to want to paint. I think what fascinated me more was seeing the oil paint speeding away on the 3 ply rollers – going at different speeds – and seeing the elasticity of the paint itself and the vibrancy of the pure colours of oils. Just a shame I have no photos of this as it was truly amazing to watch. Then when we came to the Rembrandt watercolour half pans the procedure of these being produced was interesting too. Once the paint block was heated to a specific temperature not afterwards, they were cut to size by hand after having been moulded into their half pan block shape. I watched with delight how they did this and I was given a go but struggled. Got there in the end but it was not as easy to do as they made it look but, I had to remember that these guys have been working in the factory for many years.  The lovely thing about this company is that whoever they hire they seem to be willing to hire on the families of that person. Everyone was so friendly and very helpful and, just having that time over there was such a blessing for we all gained so much out of this business trip.

We were sorry to leave but we are definitely going to go back at some point.