The Treasured Collection of paints by Graphenstone & the Ashmolean Museum

10th April 2024

With the launch of the new Ashmolean pop art collection by Art & Hue last month, the blog takes a look at the paints developed by Graphenstone which were inspired by the Museum’s exhibits.

Rather than offer the pop art in Art & Hue’s signature palette of 20 colour options, the prints are available in 12 shades closely matched to The Treasured Collection of paints.

The Treasured Collection contains 16 paint hues in total, inspired by exhibits from the Ashmolean’s collections, including works by Turner, Stradivarius, Raphael, Ruskin & Uccello, as well as by the grade I listed building itself.

For example, the colour option Ashmolean Stone is inspired by the classical façade of Britain’s oldest public Museum and College Cream is influenced by J. M. W. Turner’s painting of Oxford’s High Street.

The Treasured Collection of paints by Graphenstone & Ashmolean

The paint collection sees the meeting of tradition and technology where Graphenstone’s innovative paints, which use graphene to provide many benefits, combine with the antiquities of the Ashmolean’s vast collection.

Graphene is the strongest material currently known, discovered in 2005 by two Nobel Prize winners at Manchester University. The inert, innocuous & nontoxic pure carbon enhances hardness, durability, tensile strength, elasticity, and paint coverage. Combined with lime, Graphenstone’s wall coatings ensure that walls can breathe to improve air quality, reduce humidity & condensation, and deter bacteria & mould.

The paints are made from natural ingredients (so no petrochemicals or plastics) with only trace elements of VOCs (paint industry jargon for “Volatile Organic Compounds”) which, in the case of Graphenstone’s paints are naturally-occurring and account for less than 0.1% to make them virtually odour-free.

Considering the paint industry at large is one of the main polluters on our planet, with larger brands selling plastic vinyl paints, Graphenstone are doing their part to be eco-friendly – in fact they’re possibly the most eco-certified paint company in the World.

The Treasured Collection of paints by Graphenstone & Ashmolean

The environmental impact of manufacturing the paints is rigorously controlled, powered entirely by renewables (with waste water being reused in the production process) – all packaging is cardboard, and the paint tubs are made using 100% PCR plastic (post-consumer), meaning everything is 100% recyclable.

As well as the Ashmolean Museum, Graphenstone has collaborated on paint collections with others including the just-launched edit by Michelle Ogundehin (the previous editor of Elle Decoration magazine who is currently judging “Interior Design Masters” on BBC Two), Tim Gosling‘s Restoration Chateau collection, interior designer Rose Uniacke, plus another exciting collaboration with an Italian flavour set to debut in the Summer. (Update: The Italian Collection of Graphenstone paints by Mad About the House is now available).

Art & Hue has collaborated with the Ashmolean to create a new collection of stylish pop art prints inspired by Britain’s, and possibly the world’s, first public museum and first university museum.

With six new prints celebrating the iconic building’s architecture and exhibition spaces, the pop art is available in three sizes & 12 colours closely matched to The Treasured Collection of paints by Graphenstone inspired by the Ashmolean’s exhibits.

The collection includes three prints of the exterior, celebrating Cockerell’s classical frontage, and three prints of the Museum’s interiors, capturing the spirit of a promenade through its galleries.

Art & Hue presents Ashmolean stylish pop art prints

With the ancient bronze cast of Zeus contrasted against the contemporary atrium, and with Leighton’s Victorian bronze figure set against the picture gallery background, the prints conjure that special feeling of discovery that comes from walking through the exhibitions of an expertly-curated and historically important Museum.

The Ashmolean pop art prints are available in three sizes & 12 colours to choose from so you can curate your own personalised art collection and bring a small piece of the distinguished Museum into your home.

Exclusively by Art & Hue, all pop art is printed to order on museum-quality archival card of 310gsm, made from 100% cotton, with fine-art pigment inks for longevity.

The stylish pop art prints feature Art & Hue’s signature halftone style (halftone is an age-old technique that uses dots to make up the printed image, similar to newspapers or comic books).

Discover Art & Hue’s Ashmolean pop art prints here and below, visit the Ashmolean’s website here, and order a colour card of The Treasured Collection by Graphenstone here.