This is a series of writings I’ve been meaning to write for sometime now. Most of this is common knowledge to most – however I’ve found that everyone loves a tip or two and let’s be honest. I hate buying stuff from art supply stores when I can get tools that are one third of the price and twice as much quantity from a number of places. All you have to do is look.
Cleaning Paint Brushes
I hate cleaning brushes, I’ve never ever said otherwise. I tend to keep my brushes in a series of ever changing jars of turpentine and stand oil. When I say ever changing, I really mean that I move them into fresh turp about every two months – because I hate cleaning them.
This usually lasts for about 10 months to a year before I go and spend a good part of an afternoon cleaning them. I’ve always thought you should use a good brush soap – so I’ve always used a combination of hand soap and dish soap as well as some of the “soap for brushes” that are sold in the art supply store. These all suck. And cleaning with them is slow and deathly boring process.
This weekend was brush cleaning day. During the process of cleaning brushes I ran out of soap (I know – the horror!) so I went to the bodega a couple of doors down and bought some soap. (This is kind of a lie, my girlfriend Jan went there and bought soap – I was a mess of splattered water and ill humor). She returned with the most amazing product I have ever seen used for cleaning brushes.
Hispano Laundry Soap.
I had never heard of bar laundry soap before but, this is pretty amazing stuff. It cuts through old turpentine and more importantly old minerals attached to brushes like it was no ones business. My brushes have not looked this good in a long time.
Two bars of soap for 2 dollars.
I’ll admit that after seeing the work this soap did on oil paint and turpentine I went and washed my hands and face thoroughly.
Some Questions
Will I still hate to clean my brushes?
Will I now clean them more often?
The answers to both are easy – yes and no.
