about KROMA

KROMA history

Acrylic paints were first developed for industrial application in the early part of the twentieth century making use of new synthetic resins. During the fifties, artists became aware of the possibilities of the medium and acrylic colours began to be formulated specifically for fine art applications. Mexican muralists, requiring paint that would withstand harsh conditions, were among the first to test this durable new medium. By the late sixties acrylics had become an important new addition to the artist’s repertoire of painting materials.

In 1970 Gordon Payne began KROMA industries, dissatisfied with the availability and cost of acrylics in his own career as a painter and educator teaching at UBC. When Granville Island was rejuvenated by the Federal Government in the 1970s, transforming disused industrial warehouses under the Granville St. Bridge into a center for artisans and culture, KROMA found a space in the Net Loft building, where it has been in business ever since. Initially Gordon concentrated on a modest range of colours and packaged in large sizes, selling mainly to educational institutions and to professional artists who, in this era of abstract expressionism, often went through large quantities of paints.

Gordon Payne in his studio

Kevin Head

After helping casually at the shop as a teenager, Kevin Head joined Gordon full time as an assistant in 1992 having completed his diploma at Emily Carr College of Art. In 1993 Gordon Payne left the day-to-day operations of the shop to concentrate on painting at his studio in the gulf islands. Since then Kevin Head has run KROMA while Gordon retains joint ownership of the company.

Production methods have been continually refined and paint formulations developed. Each year several new colours are added to KROMA’s palette, most recently a range of cadmium yellows and reds. In 2000 KROMA began to package in tubes, a change that found our paint reaching a broader range of painters who use smaller quantities of paint, or who find dispensing from a tube more convenient.

KROMA’s steadily expanding business has meant that today Kevin is assisted by a growing team who help in production and in running the shop allowing him to do lab work and continue product development. Our increased volume has meant the need for extra space. While all the milling, mixing and packaging still takes place in our Granville Island shop, which is open to the public six days a week, In 2003 KROMA expanded into a warehouse in East Vancouver where the initial stages of paint-making now take place, and where raw materials and packaging are stored. We opened our warehouse to the public for the first time in November 2004 for the annual EastSide Culture Crawl.

Kevin has often worked with individual artists to create custom colours for specific projects, and as a technical consultant. In 2004 Kevin collaborated with the instructors in the fine art department of Langara College to formulate a range of lightened colours for use in colour theory work called the full spectrum group.

In 2005 we introduced new packaging for our 60ml and 150ml tubes that replaces our clear plastic tubes in these sizes. The new tubes are made in Canada of a metal/ plastic laminate which provides a non-permeable barrier for the paint and less "suck back" of air when dispensing paint: better for the paint; better for the painter.

old packaging / new packaging

Read about the paint making process >>

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