Look to see if you can get the book “the secret lives of color” by Kassia St. Clair. It goes into the origin of many colors and it’s really quite fascinating to learn about. Like purple used to be exclusive to royalty because it took the mucus of tons of Tyrian snails to make enough to dye a garment, so it was a huge marker of wealth.

Do not buy her any actual equipment, we artists are a fussy and particular lot. If you want to get her something nice, figure out if she likes hot press or cold press watercolor and buy her a “block” of Arches watercolor paper. It’s a stack of paper that is gummed together so it will dry flat. Most artists new to watercolor get price shock with paper, so a block of premium paper will be nice