Old Warriors

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Having recntly written about artists’ oil brushes, we began thinking about our favorite brushes and why they became so. As we looked through our large collections, we noticed some very worn brushes which we hang on to for some reason. It’s true, some old ragged specimens can produce very interesting textures and marks, and we’ve come to love that about them. John Singer Sargent preferred painting watercolors with some very dicey-looking Kolinsky sables. But what he could do with those! It takes one’s breath away.

Other old warriors we keep because of our affection for them. After all, we spent many hours painting with them, holding them, turning them, appreciating the strokes they could make when needed. We made some of our favorite paintings with them and now, we are too fond of them to put them into retirement. Just looking at them reminds us of not only the paintings they helped us make, but that particular time period—those years in our lives as well. They became old friends, and …