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…
