Artist Paintbrushes and Paint Tubes

The Greatest Brush (c) Mary Hubley

Painting the Studio

I limit my colors to a few of the essentials; after that, most colors can be mixed. My essentials: Ultramarine blue, cad red, cad yellow, titanium white, and burnt sienna. Occasionally I'll use Alizarine Crimson, yellow ochre, and cobalt blue. The brand? I prefer Windsor Newton, but I'll use others, too.

For my brushes, my preference is anything that's short, flat, and square headed. Expensive ones last a long time if you clean them well after each use. I never recommend the cheapest ones - these tend to lose their bristles from the beginning, leaving little hairs all over your painting.

A painting of painting things

I'm surrounded by these tools in my studio, and they called out to be painted. The paint tubes are crinkled old tubes of blue and yellow oil paints. The paintbrushes have been well used. I threw them on a blue striped cloth and yellow paper like pick-up sticks, and painted what I saw.

Genre: Still Life
Painting Name: The Greatest Brush
Size: 5" x 7"
Media: Oil on Canvasboard


-- Mary Hubley