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Paint By NumbersProducts Relating to 'Paint By Numbers'

Is there anyone who hasn't created a master piece , of sorts , with a paint by numbers kit .

I remember painting a pair of Matadors , with flowing red capes and black bulls . Pot numbers 3 and 7 I think . Those paintings remained on my bedroom wall for years as a kid.

Many people have fond memories of painting by numbers. It reminds you of a a more innocent time and your childhood.

Do you recall those pictures, with all the lines and the different numbers, and each number corresponding to a different colour?

I do, and they were great fun.

Paint by numbers filled in many an hour that the current generation fill with video games .

All of the colours came in a little plastic pots along with a couple of brushes and ofcourse the printed picture, and at the end you were supposed to get a painting that looked like the picture on the box lid.

For kids, these paint by numbers kits eventually got to the point where very little actual painting was needed, just getting the paper a bit wet magically produced the colour for you.

Kids can still get traditional paint by numbers kits though, and produce wonderful watercolor pictures of whatever subject matter is available.

So how did paint by numbers start ?

The honour of creating the phenomenum that is painting by numbers appears to belong to an American called Dan Robbins.

In 1949, when he was a 24-year-old children's colouring book illustrator and designer at the Palmer Paint company in Detroit, Robbins came up with the idea for a paint-by-numbers kit that the firm could market , aimed at the adult market .

A year or so later the company introduced its Craft Master paint by number kits. Millions were sold before the fad, which spawned countless imitators, ran its course and fell out of vogue in the late 1950s.

The original kits Robbins produced were printed on rolled canvas.

The first set was "The Fishermen" and included a canvas stamped with the numbered outline of the scene and gel caps of oil paint that the home artist set into the palette provided.

A competing company came out with the version most people recall, light blue outlines stamped onto white cardboard, Craft Master quickly shifted to the more convenient system in 1955 to keep the company in business and paint by numbers on track.

In the 1950s paint by numbers was almost considered to be an actual art form, every bit as valid as oil painting and sculpture.

You could take classes in paint by numbers, and many hobbyists took up paint by numbers, painting very nice copies of other people s art and happily framing them or having them professionally framed and hanging them on the wall. They even had copies of the classics such as Picasso and Renoir.

Paint by numbers still survives today . It is recognised by many as being theraputic . Used by children and senior citizens to help dexterity and keep the brain functioning .

Go into any hobby or craft shop and you can buy a paint by numbers set . You can even order them online at Amazon .

Maybe it's time for a paint by numbers renaisance .

Article Published: Tuesday 19th December 2006