An Artist's Guide to Brushes

A professor and his wife visited my studio last year. He stared at my brush collection and was appalled. “You paint with those?” I told him some of them were over 20 years old, and his wife chided him, “See, honey, you don’t need to spend so much money on brushes”.

I’ve accumulated a sad set of brushes over the years. None of them cost over $10. Some were purchased at an auction 5 years ago in Boston. It was an artist’s estate and I bought his used easel, paints and brushes for $15. Lucky for me, his brushes were much higher quality than the ones I purchase. I still use them, though they are beginning to disintegrate.

I purchase a new brush every few months, use it until it’s a stump, then buy a new one. The way I figure it, if I can paint this well with crap brushes, life will be a whole lot easier when I get some good ones. Good brushes are a distant dream, lumped into my hopes of someday taking a vacation, or buying new clothes or a fancy new van to take me to shows. Until then, I’ll make do with what I have.

Some old relics

The three stages of a detail brush

Most of my brushes are synthetic. I’ve been told oil painters should only use natural hair brushes, but they cost 3x as much. You don't need them. I use flats and filberts, in different sizes. Fans, angle brushes and mops are useless. I rinse them with turpentine, then soap and warm water. When I accidentally let paint dry on them, a brush restorer works magic getting them back in order. Over time, a flat brush turns into nice, bushy blending brush. A new detail brush eventually becomes a stump that can be used for applying little spots of paint.

Having quality brushes will make painting easier, but if you are on a budget, I suggest spending money on quality paint. Below are my latest paintings, all painted with my beat-up brush collection.

Billy Holiday, commissioned portrait 30x40"


Pomegranate-SOLD

3 new Mini paintings, 4x4" available for $55 each plus shipping on Etsy.

Minis are Love

I’ve been working at a manic pace, painting 5-8 hours a day. My poor brushes are disintegrating at an alarming rate. The first results of my mini painting series are finished, with more on the way.

My last large painting, Marilyn, went into photo-realism more than usual. Painting this way is technically challenging, but leaves me feeling stifled. It’s nice to have a break from all that, and explore. There’s nothing I love more than a bold brushstroke, unusual color mixing, or the odd drip. The big canvases are benefiting, and I'm having fun again.

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.~Mark Twain

Paintings can be purchased for a reasonable $55 from my website. Proceeds go toward the festival fund.