Here’s today’s painting, to be continued in the studio. I hate cleaning brushes, and today I found a new way to clean them that was really cheap and quick. I bought a bar of Fels Naphtha soap — the kind my mother used to rub on my father’s shirt collars before laundering them — and tried it on the brushes, which had simply been wiped with a rag. The paint came out easily, and the bristles were clean and soft when dry. It will be interesting to see what kind of long-term effect it has on the brushes, but so far it’s encouraging.
Another product I like is Winsor & Newton Brush Restore, a liquid for soaking really dried paint brushes (oil or acrylic). It does work when you’ve forgotten to clean up. For temporary clean-up in the studio, oil works well — vegetable oil or baby oil. There are a lot of good products out there, but the simplicity of this bar of soap is attractive, not to mention the price.
Saw some wonderful landscape watercolors at the June Fitzpatrick Congress St. gallery this weekend by the late Carl Gordon Cutler. Sort of Fauve-y, sort of Burchfield-y, and a little Marin-y, but despite those points of reference, very much his own. Go look.
