Cleaning Brushes Without Solvents

There is a helpful post at the Williamsburg Oils Blog about cleaning brushes without using solvents. People are becoming more aware about the toxicity of turpentine and mineral spirits. Even the low-odor type can be harmful if not used with plenty of ventilation.

The comments section also contains some good suggestions. After wiping your brush well on a rag or paper towel, you can use either Goop hand cleaner, baby oil or safflower oil from the grocery store to remove the residual paint. Then soap & water (regular bar soap or Murphy's Oil Soap) will finish the job. Maybe top it off with Master's or Winsor-Newton Brush Cleaner.

There is also a post by Larry Seiler on WetCanvas! where he describes how to melt down Ivory soap. He uses it as an inexpensive alternative for cleaning brushes in the classroom.

Of course, Gamblin Gamsol is a reasonably safe solvent, made from cosmetic grade petroleum distillate with all harmful aromatic solvents refined out of it, so it is minimally toxic whether inhaled, ingested or exposed to skin. It is good for thinning oil paints and mediums as well as cleanup.

Autumn Leaves

I always thought that one of the best things that Art could do was to turn sadness into beauty. Alchemy. That kept me going for a long time, but as I start to get old I realize that everything beautiful eventually turns into sadness.

I sort of knew this all along, of course. Mark Twain told me so. But it's one thing to have someone (even a very wise man) tell you something, and another thing to experience it. Then I remembered the Navajo Beautyway chant:

In beauty may I walk

All day long may I walk

Through the returning seasons may I walk

...and I remembered that beauty is much larger, more powerful than anything in the human world.

With beauty before me may I walk

With beauty behind me may I walk

With beauty above me may I walk

With beauty all around me may I walk

In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk

In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk

It is finished in beauty

It is finished in beauty

Robert Bateman Talks Art at 2013 SKB Workshop

Thank you to Gayle Crites for telling me about this Robert Bateman video interview last night.

It was recorded at the Susan K Black Foundation last month.

"I think the world would be a better place if everybody was a plein air painter. Not so much to do with art, but with paying attention to a place." The new Robert Bateman Centre is now open in Victoria, BC Canada.

Fire & Water

Yesterday, the Guerrilla Painter, his sister Becky and I participated as designated plein air painters in the annual open house for the Fort Collins Waterworks. This historic facility was first proposed in 1880, and the first part was built in 1883.

There were displays showing the results of  an excavation, explanations of how the pumps were powered by water pressure, and volunteers teaching about how ditches were dug in the 19th century, using horses.

  The motivating factor for the pioneers back in 1880 was to have enough water (and water pressure) to fight fire. Modern firemen and their firetrucks were on hand at this event yesterday, and it was a solemn reminder of the destructive High Park wildfire that began one year ago today. Although we weren't directly affected, it was so close. The hills are black. Many friends were evacuated, some lost their homes, and one friend was killed.

This is Becky's pastel from the morning of June 9, 2012. We were out painting and we spotted a tiny wisp of smoke on the horizon.