One-Eyed Dale Chihuly and his crazed Heart of Glass

I recently sent an email to W&N customer support to get their reply to the issue of their Artisan oil paints sometimes being too stiff to use properly. It's a problem I have encountered over the years, and one I see often repeated by other painters who have tried their brand (also with Grumbacher MAX, I found.) I had asked this question of them many years ago, but the reply was to just return them. I was more interested to know why it happens.

Anyway, I got a reply this morning. It states that she had not heard of this problem specifically, but that some paint pigments may be made differently and can have a different feel from the tube due to how much oil they require, etc. I'm well aware of that condition, but that's not the problem I described. Sometimes their paints feel like a stiff putty instead of that familar buttery feel that they should have, even compared to other Artisan paints.

She went on to ask for more specific feedback regarding this issue. In my case, all the Artisans I still own do not exhibit this stiffness problem. I either replaced them with other Artisans or with different brands. I have 14 tubes of Artisans now and they all squeeze out fine, except for a titanium white and cad. yellow pale hue that are a little stiff but usable. As such, I thought it would be good to post this message here so others who may have Artisans that are stiff can supply details for Winsor and Newton to respond to.

Her specific questions were:
> Can you tell me which specific colors you have experienced this stiffness with?
>
> If you still have the tubes that you consider to exhibit the very worst stiffness, could you send me the four digit number that is stamped into the crimp of the tube (the folded over edge at the bottom of the tube)? This is the batch number, and can help the manager locate any possible record of problems.
>
> When you say that some of your tubes are rather old, can you tell me approximately how old?
>
> Is this a recent problem?

So, for the members here, if you own Artisan paints that feel too stiff can you post your answers here those questions above? I will then forward them to the W&N contact I have to get her response, or perhaps just forward a link to this thread.