Oil painting has a reputation for being difficult. Slow drying times, solvents, complicated layering rules, expensive paints. I spent nearly ten years as digital marketing manager at ARTdiscount — one of the UK’s biggest online art retailers — and I watched beginners make the same mistakes with oil paints over and over again. Usually the wrong paint for the wrong reason.
I’m Paul. I now run Discount Art Supplies, a UK price comparison platform with 36,000 subscribers and a 15,000 strong community of artists. I’ve seen the sales data on what UK artists actually buy, I’ve read the reviews at scale, and I’ve watched the debates play out in our Facebook group long enough to know which beginner oil paints genuinely deliver and which ones just look good on a shelf.
My daughter is six and already asking to try “proper paints like the ones in your photos Dad.” My son is nine and has worked his way through more acrylic than I care to think about. At some point both of them will probably move into oils — and when they do, I’ll be buying them exactly the paints in this guide.
Here’s what I’d actually recommend.
Before You Buy: What You Actually Need to Know
Most beginner oil paint guides dive straight into product recommendations without telling you the things that actually matter. So before we get to the list, here are the three things worth understanding first.
Student grade vs artist grade
Oil paints come in two broad categories. Student grade (sometimes called amateur or sketching grade) uses less pigment and more filler. Artist grade uses higher quality pigments in greater concentration. The difference shows in colour vibrancy, mixing behaviour and how far the paint goes. For beginners, student grade is absolutely fine — you don’t need artist grade paint to learn with. But buy the best student grade you can afford rather than the cheapest option available.
Water mixable oils are a game changer for beginners
Traditional oil paints require solvents like white spirit or turpentine for thinning and brush cleaning. They smell, they’re not great in enclosed spaces, and they add complexity when you’re still learning. Water mixable oil paints — sometimes called water soluble oils — behave almost identically to traditional oils but clean up with water. For anyone painting in a spare bedroom, kitchen table or anywhere with limited ventilation, these are genuinely transformative. I’d recommend any UK beginner considers them seriously before defaulting to traditional oils.
Don’t buy a massive set
I’ve said this in other guides on this site and I’ll say it again here. Buying a 48-colour oil paint set as a beginner is one of the most common and expensive mistakes you can make. You’ll use six colours regularly and the rest will sit in a drawer drying out. Start with a limited palette — primary colours, a white and a black — and learn to mix. You’ll learn faster and waste a lot less money.
The Best Oil Paints for Beginners UK — 2026
1. Winsor & Newton Winton Oil Colour — Best Overall for Beginners
Winton is the benchmark student grade oil paint in the UK. Full stop. I watched it outsell almost everything else in its category for years at ARTdiscount, and for good reason. It uses quality fine art pigments, has a reliable consistency across the colour range, and performs noticeably better than cheaper alternatives when it comes to mixing and blending.
The Winton starter set — 20 colours in 12ml tubes — is the most sensible entry point to oil painting for most UK beginners. It gives you enough colours to learn colour mixing without overwhelming you, at a price that won’t sting too badly if you decide oils aren’t for you.
Winton is made by Winsor & Newton — one of the oldest and most respected art materials manufacturers in the world, founded in London in 1832. When you’re buying Winton you’re buying into over 190 years of paint making expertise. That’s not marketing — it genuinely shows in the product.
Browse current UK prices on Winton: check our paints and mediums deals page before buying.
2. Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oils — Best for Beginners Who Want Solvent-Free Painting
If the idea of solvents and turpentine puts you off — and it puts a lot of people off — Artisan is the answer. These are water mixable oils that behave like traditional oils in almost every respect. You can blend, glaze, layer and use all the standard oil painting techniques. But you thin them with water, and you clean your brushes with water and soap.
Winsor & Newton’s Artisan range is the most established and widely recommended water mixable oil on the UK market. The beginner set comes with six 37ml tubes — a sensible starting palette. The colours are vibrant, lightfast and behave predictably when mixing.
This is what I’d buy if I was starting from scratch today. The solvent-free workflow removes one of the biggest barriers to getting started with oils, and the quality is high enough that you won’t outgrow it quickly.
3. Daler Rowney Georgian Oil Colour — Best British Budget Option
Made in the UK — which matters to a lot of artists — Georgian is Daler Rowney’s student grade oil range and has been a staple of the UK art supplies market for decades. It’s not quite at Winton’s level in terms of pigment load on some colours, but it’s a solid, reliable paint that punches above its price point.
For anyone on a tighter budget who still wants a reputable UK brand, Georgian is the sensible choice. The earth tones in particular — burnt sienna, raw umber, yellow ochre — are consistently good across the range.
Daler Rowney also make excellent mediums and accessories that work seamlessly with Georgian, which makes it a good ecosystem to buy into as a beginner. If you’ve read our Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic review you’ll already know I rate them as a brand for value at the student end of the market.
4. Daler Rowney Graduate Oil — Best Entry Level Option
Graduate sits below Georgian in Daler Rowney’s range — it’s their most accessable student level oil paint. The pigment load is lower than Georgian or Winton, but the price reflects that. For someone who genuinely isn’t sure whether oil painting is for them and wants to spend as little as possible to find out, Graduate is a reasonable starting point.
The 10-colour 38ml starter set offers impressive lightfastness for the price — three to four star ratings — and decent intermixability. Don’t expect Georgian or Winton performance, but as a first introduction to working with oils it does the job.
5. Van Gogh Oil Colour by Royal Talens — Best Step Up From Student Grade
Once you’ve been painting for a few months and you’re ready to step up from entry level student grade, Van Gogh by Royal Talens is where I’d point you. It sits between student and artist grade — better pigment load than Winton or Georgian, genuinely excellent lightfastness, and a wide colour range including some unique hues you won’t find in basic student sets.
Van Gogh is a Dutch brand with a serious reputation among improving artists. The paint has a lovely buttery consistency and mixes beautifully. If you started on Winton and feel ready for something better without the price jump to full artist grade, Van Gogh is the natural next step.
What About Cheap Sets From Amazon?
You’ll find dozens of oil paint sets on Amazon — Ohuhu, Magicfly, KEFF, Castle Art Supplies and countless others — typically priced at £15-25 for 24-48 colours. They look like great value. And for some purposes they are.
But here’s what the product listings don’t tell you: most of these sets use lower quality pigments with significant filler content. The colours can look vibrant in the tube but weaken considerably when mixed. Whites are often underpowered. Lightfastness ratings — which determine whether your paintings fade over time — are frequently absent or unverified.
For a child experimenting with oils for the first time, they’re fine. Zach would probably be happy with any of them. But if you’re a beginner who’s genuinely serious about learning oil painting and wants your work to last, spending a little more on Winton or Georgian will produce noticeably better results and teach you better habits.
One exception worth noting: Castle Art Supplies gets consistently positive reviews in the UK and represents reasonable value at the budget end of the market. Better than most in its category.
A Quick Note on What Else You’ll Need
Oil paints alone won’t get you very far. As a beginner you’ll also need:
- A medium — linseed oil is the traditional choice for thinning paint and extending drying time. If you’re using water mixable oils, water does the job but a dedicated water mixable medium gives better results
- Solvent — white spirit or odourless mineral spirits for cleaning brushes if using traditional oils. Skip this entirely with water mixable oils
- Brushes — hog bristle brushes for oils. Don’t use your acrylic brushes — oil painting requires stiffer bristles for most techniques
- A palette — glass or tear-off paper palettes work well for oils
- Primed canvas or canvas boards — oils need a primed surface. Most canvas boards and stretched canvases sold in the UK are pre-primed and ready to use
Keep an eye on our paints and mediums deals page for the best current prices on all of the above across UK retailers.
My Honest Recommendation
If I was buying oil paints for a UK beginner today — whether that’s for myself, for Lucy, or eventually for Zach and Nancy when they’re ready — here’s exactly what I’d buy:
- Traditional oils: Winsor & Newton Winton 20-colour starter set. Buy it, learn with it, don’t overthink it
- Solvent-free: Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oil beginner set. Genuinely the best intro to oils for anyone who doesn’t want solvents in their home
- Budget option: Daler Rowney Georgian starter set. Solid, British made, reliable
Whatever you choose — don’t buy the biggest set available, don’t spend a fortune on artist grade paint before you know you love the medium, and don’t be put off by oil painting’s reputation for difficulty. The slow drying time that frustrates some people is the same property that lets you blend beautifully and correct mistakes with ease. Give it a proper go.
When you’re ready to look at professional grade options and step up from student paint, read our guide to the best professional oil paints worth the money.
