Lavender Hill Colours Art Shop is now an official retailer for Nitram Fine Art Charcoal. One of the best drawing products available and is now owned by Jerzy Niedojadlo and his partner Patrica. I have been using this make of charcoal for almost twenty years now. Here’s a snippet of Nitram’s recent story:

“I discovered that it was no longer even being produced!

I decided to go directly to the source and wrote to Mr. Nitram himself. Initially I received no response, but I played the part of the proverbial squeaky wheel and persisted. Several emails later I finally received a response. This was the start of what would become a lengthy and increasingly friendly correspondence between us. Daniel (Mr. Nitram), as it turned out, had simply decided to pursue other interests and was no longer interested in continuing the Nitram business. It was to be the end of the line for this excellent product and I was very sad to hear of it.

It was at this point that my entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and I decided that I would be interested in taking on the business and preserving the tradition of Nitram fine art charcoal for myself and other artists. Eventually, my partner Patrica and I went to France and together we purchased the process, the equipment and the trademark.

In November I will be spending a month with Daniel to begin producing Nitram charcoal the way it has always been made. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or at least history in the making…”

Jerzy Niedojadlo