Brushes...

A good brush is like breathing for an artist. Preserving the favorites is a one of the challenges to a frugal artist. I still have the first professional watercolor brush my mother bought my sister Sarah at the age of four, a lovely robust size 10. Thanks Sarah, let me know if you would like it back…

I remember painting in the dorms at RIT. All my brushes I would use for a project would sit corralled in my cup of water ready for immediate use. Our teachers had just introduced us to 000/1 brushes, tiny fine brushes. I loved them for the precision they allowed me to control the pictures crispness. Amazing things happen when the outlining of an object with a slightly almost not there fine line and the whole object pops! This is one of those obsessions that keeps the wonders of paintings keep me working. One aggravating problem kept occurring… No matter how much or how little I spent on a brush my brushes eventually bent just on the very tip. In Rochester I compensated by changing my hand position. When I moved to Germany I tried a hanging basket. Unfortunately they were not very practical for such slender brush grips.

I’ve just been to Florence were I hopped into a tiny whole in the wall art supply store where they had handmade Italian brushes. Oh the price was worth the whole trip. The quality as well… When they are put in water they come out a point with the water at the top of the brush as a good water color brush should work only so miniature. Really a dream brush…

I realized while painting somewhere along the way I’ve learned to preserve the tips of my brushes. So simple I could slap my university self. Don’t let the tip rest down in the water. Wash them out and leave them flat on the table. The only time the tip bends is when they are full of paint releasing their wonder on the paper. The lack on the grip is also better preserved. I don’t remember when this realization arrived. I do know that I can line my brushes up and say which batch I started this practice the, tips are straight.

…if  I’d just known this when my mother had bought me that size six professional watercolor brush at age six…that brush was regulated long ago to the bent brush ben…