Painting a Basket of Geraniums

Our latest START class included a wide range of painting experience from almost none to quite a bit. Every painting turned out wonderful.

And you can see that they were pleased with their painting.

Floating with AcrylicsTip

Tip: remember, if you want your flat brush to retain a flat, held together shape, hold it at a low angle to your surface and hold back from the ferrule. If you want your brush to split, hold it close to the ferrule with the handle more perpendicular to the surface.

low angle and holding back from the ferrule

handle up and holding the ferrule

When you are floating, you want a low angle for a smooth application. Shade once, walk out, and let it dry. You can always go back when it's dry and strengthen or adjust your shading. If you continue to "play" in your tender acrylic paint you will be pulling it off and not smoothing it out. Then you have a bigger problem to fix.

Painting Party

We had another wonderful group of painters with us this past Friday for a painting party. Their baskets of geraniums turned out so nice. We had novices as well as experienced painters and every painting was the same and totally different. This was another of our START classes.

Here's a note from one of our painters:

What a fun morning of painting - 6 new friends, a painting I will enjoy, and a gifted teacher - thanks Liz for today's class. Looking forward to the next one. This is a wonderful starting place for beginning students and relaxing place for those who just love to paint.. Betsy W.

Carolina Red Mud

When I was growing up as a child in NC, my mother's parents lived "in the country" where my mother was born and raised.  In Rowan county we have red clay, red dust, and red foot prints tracked into the house. It was what we knew.  Didn't everyone have red dirt?  We always had a wonderful garden and supplied the family with a plentiful harvest of vegetables for eating fresh or canning for delicious cold weather meals.

After a substantial rain, the red dirt at the edge of my grandfather's driveway developed a slick coat of red clay which, when dried by the sun, cracked, creating enticing  thin red clay tiles.  Fascinated by these exciting creations of nature I would squat by the driveway for hours playing and building with the mud tiles. What fun!

Today, instead of red clay mud and tiles, I have art products to use for my creations such as paints, mediums, and texture products as well as  techniques for mixing, blending, glazing, and mingling.  And again, I am a child squatting by the driveway at my grandfather's house, fascinated by my creations, this time with a wealth of products, surfaces, and paints. It's as much fun as mud pies!

Cleaning Paint Brushes

One of my students asked me this week to explain how I clean my paint brushes.  Her brushes were splitting and frazzeling.   I thought this sounded like good information for the blog so here it is.

I paint in acrylics. It's important to take good care of your brushes if you want them to do good work for you.
Cheap brushes are more expensive because you go through a lot of them to get a brush that works well and they wear out quicker.  It's important to have good brushes for painting with acrylics.  I love the Scharff brushes.  They are quality, have a great shape, and retain their shape if you care for them properly.

After painting I clean my brushes with DecoArt's DecoMagic liquid brush cleaner.  I pour some out on my palette, or my glass table top, and work my wet brush in the liquid, pushing and pulling, lifting the handle to spread out the bristles and wiggling the brush side to side. I make sure I have the paint worked out of the ferrule by grasping the bristles in my left hand while I wiggle the brush side to side. Then I rinse my brush thoroughly in cool water. If your brush is separating down the middle lengthwise, you are not getting the paint cleaned out of the ferrule.. 
I always lay my brush flat on the table to dry. Gravity will pull dirty paint water or slightly soapy water down into the ferrule, dry, and cause your brush to separate.

 A Few More Brush Tips:

Brushes have a specific shape to perform a specific task.  Try to keep them is that shape.

Old brushes have uses too. Like drybrushing. And letting the kids use them.

If you use a water basin with a ridged bottom, avoid pulling your brush across the ridges. If you can't remove the paint with just pouncing in one of flat bottomed section, pull your ferrule across the ridges just 2 or 3 times, in one direction, to vibrate paint out of the ferrule.  Never pull the bristles across the ridges. This is like curling ribbon!  Never pull your liner and smaller brushes across the ridges. Just flick them side to side in one of the small basin sections to clean and vibrate the paint from the ferrule.

I like the Master Brush Cleaner too. The 1/4 oz size if great for traveling.

If you have paint dried up in your brush ferrule, you can soak it in DecoMagic awhile, then clean as above.  Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner and Restorer is also excellent for removing dried paint. Just remember it eats plastic so use a glass container for the the solution.

It's much easier to paint with a good brush. If you take care of your brushes they will paint nicely for you.

Here are some additional tips from Scharff:

• Always clean your brushes immediately after every use.
• Never let the paint dry on your brush.
• Never use the cleaning tubs with a rippled bottom. This is not the proper way to clean your brushes. It is a very good way to ruin your brushes.
• Do not let a brush stand in water or cleaning solvents for any length of time. This will cause the liquid to leach into the handle and swelling will occur in the wood. This will lead to the paint chipping off and the ferrule becoming loose.
• After thoroughly cleaning your brushes, store them lying flat or with the ferrules up. Never store your brushes on the hair.