There is a myth that watercolor painting is less permanent and less valuable than oil painting. In fact, the oldest surviving paintings are prehistoric and water-based. 30,000 years is a substantial longevity test. Oil painting is "the new kid on the block," not created until the fifteenth century by Jan Van Eyck.

Watercolor actually is more stable than oil. The ground, usually cotton rag paper, is not subjected to the fatty acids which can destroy canvas over time. The thinner layers of watercolor pigment do not crack and peel as oil layers can, and they are less vulnerable to unstable grounds.

Cave paintings, Egyptian tomb paintings, medieval manuscripts, renaissance frescoes - not to mention all traditional Asian and Indian paintings - are examples of major and lasting water-based work. While many great painters since the Renaissance have used and preferred watercolor, amateur painting during the Victorian era left the medium with a stigma as "Sunday painting" and "the painting of ladies and dandies."

Watercolor is clean - much less toxic, more easily transportable, more "environmentally friendly" than oil-based media. As for the pigments themselves, they are the same in either medium.

One of the reasons watercolor has been considered more vulnerable to light is because it has been traditionally painted in thin, transparent layers, relying on the white surface of paper for reflective light. This means that the molecules of pigment may be subjected to ultraviolet light from more sides than more densely painted oils.

Donald Archer uses all permanent pigments and paints more densely, often incorporating opaque tempera, which leaves each molecule of pigment less vulnerable. Watercolors are not varnished after completion and need to be kept under glass or plexiglas for protection. For further protection, glass or plexiglas can be purchased with ultraviolet shielding. Archer's watermedia paintings are made to last and compare favorably in longevity to oils.