The time has come once again and I feel the need to share a wonderful art material experience with my artist brethren. In this installment of The Sickness, I turn my attention to brushes. Specifically, brushes for painting in oil, which is my preferred medium. Nearly every art professor I studied with told me to never skimp on brushes, and brother, they weren't kidding. I have seen the light. I am transformed. I have been to the promised land, and I like it there. Never again will I buy a second rate, Chinese-made paint brush. Never again will I shop at Michael's or Hobby Lobby for a paint brush.
My first encounter with paint brush bliss came in the form of an Escoda Clasico chunking hog bristle round number 4. The Escoda brushes are made at a family-owned (4 generations worth) factory in Spain, and they are first rate. I have used many brands of brushes in my career, and the Escoda brushes have rocketed to the top of my list of favorites. They have excellent spring, hold a lot of paint, give beautifully when in contact with the canvas, hold their shape very well and they don't shed. These brushes are themselves works of art. The handles are gorgeous. But, of course, if you are using them correctly, the handles should rapidly become encased in dried paint! Anyway, I can't imagine how any painter could regret purchasing just one Escoda brush and trying it out. I can imagine many dedicated painters skipping meals to save money for a set of these beauties. My favorites are the filberts.
Of similarly high quality are a set of Silver Brush Grand Prix Bristles and Renaissance Cats Tongue Sables that I recently acquired in the form of the Daniel Greene Portraiture Master Set. The Grand Prix brushes are chunking hog bristle, have beautiful matte green handles and copper-plated ferrules. Like the Escodas, the bristles have excellent spring and can carry a lot of paint. They shed minimally, but only on first use in my experience. The sables have a unique cats tongue shape that I find very useful as they essentially perform as a flat, round and filbert, all in one brush. They are soft, as a sable should be, and none of them has shed a single hair. I find that these Renaissance brushes are particularly well balanced and a joy to paint with. My blends have reached new heights of sophistication using these brushes.
There are as many different opinions about brushes as there are artists who use them. Though I would not dare proclaim any authority on this matter, I am happy to share my experiences. The summary of my experiences is short and to the point, and I would deliver it as I imagine Jim Carrey might, by putting on a crazed glare, looking you straight in the eye and in my loudest, most condescending tone shout: "Don't buy cheap brushes, Loser!" In all seriousness, brushes are not the item on which to go cheap. Your brushes are the physical extension of your hands, through which your soul speaks in images on the canvas. Why in the world would you give your soul laryngitis?
Now go make some art!
Chris Ingram
